LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF 


^SAINT PETERS 




JOHN W. BURKE & CC*, MACON, PUBLISHERS. 
YANCEY, CRANFORD & GANTT, ATHENS, GA., PRINTERS. 



























LESSONS FROM THE LIFE 


OF 


SAINT PETER. 


SIX ESSAYS. 


// 

BY A? A LIPSCOMB, D. D. LL. D., 

CEntcrituo JJvoftooov, |laui>evl)ilt, Uitiurvoiti). 


“ I think that look of Christ might seem to say, 
****** 

Because I know this man, let him be clear.” 

— Mrs. Browning's Sonnet. 







\b 



J. W. Burke &Co., Publishers, Macon, Ga. 
Burke it- Anderson, Athens, <;a. 

Yancey, Cranford & Gantt, Printers, Athens, Ga. 

1882. 





Iz -JMW 


||cssans fnuijtln* |0fc of j|i |}eter» 


FIRST ESSAY. 


Introductory Views: St. Peter and Galilee—A Pioneer and what may 
be expected of Him—Character of the writers who portray Him— 
Galilee as a section of Western Asia—Adapted to an elect Race—Iso¬ 
lation and Imitation—“ Galilee of the Gentiles ” —Christ chose it as 
ihe main scene of His Ministry—Adapted to the Practical Theory 
as well as the Ideal of His Ministry—Illustrations—How the Me¬ 
tropolitan Jews regarded Galilee—Josephus and Galilee—Titus, the 
Roman General—Galilee under Herod Antipas—Character of the 
Man—Stands aloof from Christ’s condemnation—Remarks on 
singular Position—Galilee has no part in Christ’s Death. 

St. Peter is before us as a study. Had lie not been called 
by the Lord Jesus to be one of his Apostles, it is not probable 
that he would have emerged from the obscurity of provincial 
Galilee. Little or nothing existed in that section of Palestine 
to encourage greatness in such a man, or stimulate genius of 
any kind. Yet it had dormant power, and, in due time, it was 
aroused, then disciplined to steady action, and finally organ¬ 
ized in a form that survives to this day. A grand soul was 
slumbering there, and the hour of its awakening had come. 
Among those first chosen by Christ to participate in this move¬ 
ment, St. Peter has a prominent attitude. Pioneers are always 
men of mark. They have a brawny strength that comes at 
first-hand from nature and a fire of passion that reminds one 
of the central furnace of the earth. We never tire of reading 
their exploits. Our life escapes from conventionalities and 




4 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


refreshes its instincts with their simplicity. St. Peter as a 
pioneer addresses a particular class of feelings. Although not 
appealing primarily to the imagination, he has an element of 
romantic vigor that is “ insuppressive mettle.” The romance 
is always in keeping with himself. Never an actor for the 
sake of acting, we cannot conceive of him as deliberately put¬ 
ting on a mask to conceal his real motives. 

Blunder he may, blunder often and gravely. Fall too, he will, 
when temptation rushes suddenly on his exhausted heart. 
Such things will not surprise us in a man who was to be a 
pioneer in an exceptional order of life. Like the Lake of 
Tiberias, open by its singular location to the storms that swept 
through the mountain gorges, we may look for his impulses to 
hurry him into imprudent words and rash acts. And we may 
be sure, that experiences of such frequent recurrence will be 
slow to make one solid mass of experience that shall be perma¬ 
nently basic to his character. All this, we must be prepared 
to allow for in advance. He will give us abundant opportuni- 
nies to understand exactly what he is, and, furthermore, we 
shall have ample leisure to get the right impression by win¬ 
nowing accidental circumstances from the substantial reality. 
One aspect of him can be compared with another, nor shall 
we lack occasions that furnish a broad access to the very 
depths of his being. At no time, will insight be severly taxed. 
The man has a large and intelligible surface. To understand 
him we are not required to be experts in the science of human 
nature. Enough if we are honest observers, tutored by daily 
life in the use of our eyes and intent on getting the whole 
truth. Happily for our study, inspired men portray St. Peter 
and only dismiss him from view when his character and work 
have attained completeness. These same writers are the biog- 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 5 


rapliers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The awe of the Divine 
Presence is ever upon them. The consciousness of Divine 
Wisdom is ever within them. Rest assured that such men 
will “ nothing extenuate nor aught set down in malice.” 

St. Peter was a native of Galilee, one of the three provinces 
forming Palestine. The word “ Galilee,” signifies a “ circle,” 
or “ circuit,” and was originally applied to a section of country 
surrounding Kadesh-Naphtali. It was divided into upper and 
lower Galilee ; the northern portion, which embraced the 
mountainous region between the upper Jordan and Phoenicia, 
being called Upper Galilee, wdiile Lower Galilee included the 
hill country, the great plain of Esdraelon, the Jordan, and the 
Lake of Tiberias. It is a part of Western Asia and has the 
distinctive features belonging to that vast continent, which 
seems to symbolize in its contour, its proportions, its eleva¬ 
tions, its plateaus and peninsulas, the mother-land of the 
nations, the nursery of their strength and the cradle of their 
civilizations. The majesty of nature is here in perfection, 
stern in some of its forms, beautiful mothers, as if by mute but 
significant emblems, to remind man in the infancy of his race, 
that reverence of power and love of goodness are inseparable. 
Unlike the Asia of the East, Western Asia is less marked in 
the contrasts of its topography. Its mountain ranges are not 
so high, its plains and table lands not so strikingly differenced, 
the country more accessible, the climate more moist, the soil 
more fertile. This is the Asia of patriarchal times, of Abraham 
and Job, of the mysteries first opened by the revelations of 
God. It is the Asia of history because it had the earliest 
p rophecy and poetry, its scenery and modes of life abounding 
in appeals to the imagination and furnishing it with means of 
impressing its sentiments and emotions. It was a picturesque 


6 LESSONS FKOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEB. 


world and had a picturesque language. Palestine was a fa¬ 
vored section of Western Asia and Galilee was by far the most 
luxuriant, diversified, attractive portion of Palestine. 

The purpose of Jehovah to “ separate ” a people from 
“ among all the people of the earth ” was seen quite as clearly 
in establishing their home in Palestine as in their institutions. 
One idea runs through everything. If, in view of insulating 
the Hebrews from other races, we see peculiar laws as to diet 
and physical life, every matter in short from sanitary pru¬ 
dence to the most stringent moral and religious principles, 
the country itself bears upon its face a pre-ordination to the 
same end. A certain degree of solitude is necessary in the early 
history of a nation .destined to fill a providential sphere in the 
world. The time comes afterwards when imitation acts. Ab¬ 
sorption °ts in, cosmopolitan feelings operate far and wide, 
brotherhood takes its lower activities in trade and commerce, 
preparatory to higher relations. Imitation is the forerunner 
of these co-operative and unifying energies. But imitation is 
never healthy, never safe, unless it is preceded by a period of 
solitary existence, continued long enough for the integral 
constituents of a people’s idiosyncrasy to take an enduring 
form. Palestine secured this isolation to the Hebrews. While 
far removed from the dead monotony of Eastern Asia, it was 
protected by a desert from Egypt on the South, and from 
Europe by the Mediterranean on the west. A narrow strip of 
land, too small under the Hebrew polity for any other devel¬ 
opment except that of an intelligent, domestic and religious 
commonwealth, it was shut in from the world and fortified 
naturally against invasion. It was a land, too, calculated to 
keep its own inhabitants at home and make them contented 
with its territory. Home had its first true meaning among 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEK 


7 


the Hebrews. Houses, terraces, vineyards, orchards, national 
trees, national flowers and fruits, national sites, allied the 
people with the soil, far beyond anything of the kind known 
in antiquity. But, at the same time, the land had a capacity 
for prospective connections with other divisions of the globe. 
Almost centered between the most valuable portions of the 
East and the West, Palestine would necessarily become the 
highway of the nations. Such would be its eventual fortune, 
and, in the fortune, whether viewed as to population, industry, 
or commerce, Galilee would share largely. Geographically 
viewed, then, Palestine had two eminent advantages, viz: in¬ 
sulation for the development of an extraordinary race, and 
freedom of inlet and outlet for future communication with 
the w r orld. 

Its northern position secured Galilee great commercial ad¬ 
vantages, and, in the time of our Lord, they were at their 
height. Jerusalem, at the south, retained under Roman rule 
much of its metropolitan splendor, and, to the Jew wherever 
found, was the Jerusalem of his fathers. Tradition had taught 
him that it was the geographical centre of the earth. Resting 
on firmer ground, his faith revered it as the ancient and still 
abiding place of Jehovah, whence the law would go forth to 
subdue the nations. It was this future Jerusalem that fed 
his pride and hope, nourished his aspirations, and converted 
even the bread of sorrows into life-giving sustenance. But, 
meanwhile, Galilee, was more than ever, “ Galilee of the 
Gentiles.” Isaiah had prophesied (IX—1) of it in this char¬ 
acter, and St. Matthew (IV., 13—17) is careful to point out 
that it was to this “ Galilee of the Gentiles,” Jesus went to 
open his ministry. Galilee was the gateway between the 
continents; East, West, South, met here in trade ; and, in 


8 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


addition, it had a thriving industry of its own. Towns and 
villages, clustering aiound the Lake of Tiberias, were filled 
with a mixed population. Intercourse among them was easy 
and rapid. Magdala, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, were 
on the western shore of the Lake and near together. No one 
mode of life was dominant and absorbing. Fertile rural dis¬ 
tricts, yielding a variety of crops, lay close to the cities. Agri¬ 
culturists in the fields, orchard growers and vine-dressers, 
fishermen on the Lake, traders in the marts of business, 
Arabs, Syrians, Phoenicians, Greeks, were here found pursuing 
their occupations and intermingling freely in the stir and 
bustle of money-making. Of course, in such a state of society, 
ideas would represent various nationalities. Opinions would 
come in conflict and mental attrition would be unceasing. 
Yet there were two facts of significance. In this “ Galilee of 
the Gentiles,” the Greek language was currently spoken, and 
the Galilean Jews stood firmly by their religion. The lan¬ 
guage was in itself a liberalizing influence, while the devotion 
to the Law, if less sectarian and fanatical than at Jerusalem, 
was far truer and purer. 

Is it not in the line of antecedent history and still more in 
the direction of future events, that the Lord Jesus should 
choose Galilee as the chief scene of his Ministry? Take the 
actual, working-theory of his life just as we see it in the synop¬ 
tical Gospels ; take the poverty of condition, the singular 
disengagement from ordinary circumstances, the entire free¬ 
dom from conventional thraldom so essential to the impression 
of sincere and profound philanthropy ; take his teaching and 
miracles as adapted to the average mind of the day and as 
things to be wrought at once into the texture of current events ; 
and can we fail to notice, that Galilee offered Him the only 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


9 


prospect in accord with his plan? Or, take the Ideal of that 
plan, its ultimate outreachings, its universality of aim and 
consequences, his sufferings and death, resurrection and exal¬ 
tation, Pentecost and the diffusion of the Gospel, He Himself 
in glorified Humanity, as the Head of the church ; take this 
scheme of Divine Grace in its consummation ; and where but 
in Galilee and among Galileans, could He have found men, 
who, while Jews and very decided and earnest Jews, were yet 
less exclusive, dogmatical, and secular than the Jews of Judea? 
One of the twelve Apostles seems to have been taken from 
Judea and he was Judas Iscariot. Among Judean women, 
Martha and Mary seem to have been his only friends. 

Had the Son of Man been such a Messiah as the Jews 
expected and longed for—their national desire instead of “ the 
desire of all nations”—Judea would have been the theatre of 
action and Jerusalem the seat of power. From the first, his 
plan was arranged—Galilee for the main work of life, Judea 
for his death, resurrection, proofs of the resurrection, ascen¬ 
sion, and Pentecost. There was no after thought; the end 
was the germ of the beginning. Now, accordingly, “ Galilee 
of the Gentiles ” takes its place in the providential history, 
and we understand why it was exceptional in the later devel¬ 
opment of Hebrew civilization in Palestine. Do the caravans 
come and go? “No mention shall be made of coral, or of 
pearls; for # the price of wisdom is above rubies.” Job 
XXVIII, 18. And this wisdom, heard from Jesus in Galilee, 
shall find a lodgment in the hearts of camel drivers and go 
eastward in anticipation of St. Peter’s ministry in his closing 
years. Have Phoenicians, Arabs, Greeks, gathered here for 
trade and commerce? Impressions will be made, must be 
made, which will draw these men to the Apostles in Asia Minor 


10 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


and other lands. And yet more ; these Galileans were not 
corrupted by heathen ways of living. Their morals were better 
than those of Judea. Men and women were personally more 
, virtuous and their home-life was more rigidly guarded. Nor 
must we forget to mention, that the women spoken of by St. 
Luke (VIII, 1,2,3,) “which ministered unto Him of their 
substance ” and attended Him ” throughout every city and 
village,” were of Galilee. And quite as noticeable is the fact, 
that the Galilean women were early at the sepulchre with 
their spices and that the risen Christ appeared first to them. 
Women are not the best illustrations of the material, intellec¬ 
tual, and civic aspects of civilization, but, unquestionably, 
they indicate its moral and religious character more accurately 
than men. They catch the earliest whispers in the air of 
coming spiritual eras. Never happens it otherwise than that 
the Angel of the Annunciation, bearing the tidings of a new 
hope for Humanity, delivers to them his gracious consolation. 
And if there were nothing else to demonstrate how much more 
open was Galilee than Judea to the Ministry of the Lord 
Jesus, the incidents above mentioned would be sufficient for 
the purpose. 

Elements of character which belong to a community, display 
themselves with their best force in such individuals as Provi¬ 
dence assigns to the leadership of great movements. Provi¬ 
dence appears in the rank and file before disclosing itself in 
the captains of enterprises. And, hence, we must understand 
Galilee in the time of Christ if we would comprehend St, 
Peter. How contemptuously this “Galilee of the Gentiles” 
was regarded by-the Pharisees, we all know. It was a con¬ 
stant reproach to Christ that He was viewed as a Galilean. 
“ Jesus of Nazareth ” was He whom Judas and his band sought 


11 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

in the Garden of Olives. On a memorable occasion, 
Nicodemus ventured to ask the Pharisees : “ Doth our law judge 
any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?” 
Whereupon, he was met by the retort: “ Art thou also of 
Galilee? Search and look ; for out of Galilee ariseth no 
prophet. ’ St. John, VII, 51, 52. Now, this contempt was 
wholly undeserved. Hosea, Jonah, and Nahum, were prophets 
from Galilee. Dr. Geikie remarks : “ Yet, Galilee, from the 
earliest times, had vindicated its claims to honor for the in¬ 
tellectual vigor of its people. Not only physically and mor¬ 
ally, but even in mental freshness and force, it was before the 
narrow and morbid south which had given itself up to to the 
childish trifling of Rabbinism. The earliest poetry of Israel 
rose among the Galilean hills, when Barak of Naphtali had 
triumphed over the Canaanites. The song of songs was com¬ 
posed in Galilee by a poet of nature, whose heart and eyes 
drank in the inspiration of the bright »ky and the opening 
flowers, and who could tell how the fig-tree put forth its 
leaves, and the vine sprouted, and the pomegranate opened its 
blossoms.”* 

The fact is, that Galilee had the only stock of vigor suffi¬ 
cient to receive the graft of Christ’s doctrine. If the metro¬ 
politan Jew despised Galilee, his scorn was a tribute to its 
merits. Its people were faithful in an uncommon degree to 
their religion and intensely alive to the honor of their country. 

Josephus speaks of “ these two Galilees ”as always able “ to 
make a strong resistance on all occasions of war ; for the 
Galileans are inured to war from their infancy. Nor hath 
the country been ever destitute of men of courage or wanted 


* Life and words of Christ. Vol. 1, Pages 313, 314. The reader will find in Chap. 
XX of this great work, a most admirable sketch of the Galileans. 



12 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


a numerous set of them.” Wars of the Jews ; Book III. 
Chap. III. The courage of Eleazer of Galilee is highly com- 
mended as that also of his brothers, “ who leaped upon the 
soldiers (Roman) of the Tenth Legion and put to flight all 
upon whomsoever they made their assaults.” Chap. VII. 
Titus spoke of these Galileans to his “brave Romans” as 
men who, though already beaten, do not give up the cause * 
* * who be very bold and despisers of death,” and adds, 

that it must never be said “that after we have got dominion of 
the habitable earth, the Jews are able to confront us.” Book 
III. Chap. X. Josephus closes Chap. II. Book IV., with 
these words : “ Thus was all Galilee taken ; but this not till 

after it had cost the Romans much pain before it could be 
taken by them.” Such testimonies to the courage of Galileans, 
if nothing more than mere bravery were involved, would be 
honorable to them. But this virtue of courage represented 
other virtues and was in fact their embodiment. They were a 
very industrious, thrifty, home-loving people, whose prosperity 
w r as of a kind to make them prudent and conservative, and 
whose piety sanctified the sentiments of home-life. This was 
what their courage fought for and might well fight for when 
occasion demanded. “ Their soil,” says Josephus, “ is univer¬ 
sally rich and fruitful, and full of the plantations of trees of 
all sorts, insomuch that it invites the most slothful to take 
pains in its cultivation ; accordingly, it is all cultivated by its 
inhabitants, and no part of it lies idle.” Book III, Chap. III. 

Galilee, in the time of Christ, was under the local rule of 
Herod Antipas. a man who stood as a personal and official 
type of Roman and Jewish degeneracy. The qualities of his 
arly character suggest a resemblence to young Octavius 
Caesar, like whom, he was watched by envious eyes and had to 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, IB 


rely on quiet shrewdness and patient amiability to gain his 
ends. This same prudence advanced his fortunes first under 
Augustus and yet more under Tiberius, to whose favor he was 
much indebted. His kingdom was strengthened, Sepphoris 
rebuilt and fortified, Tiberias in honor of the Emperor made 
the new capital and adorned with lavish splendor. Yet, as he 
grew older, he grew in the image of his father King Herod. 
The evil blood was there ; and if evil blood be left to itself, 
it shows an awful proclivity to repeat itself. After the murder 
of John the Baptist, disasters began to overtake him nor did 
they cease till he had lost his throne and was condemned to per¬ 
petual banishment. And yet this base man—mean enough to 
take his brother’s wife—weak enough to slay John the Bap¬ 
tist at the request of a dancing woman—silly enough to be 
flattered by Pilate when he sent Jesus to him—this cruel 
voluptuary and savage murderer will have nothing to do 
with the death of Jesus ! Herod and his soldiers mocked Him, 
set Him at naught, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, but 
nothing further—no scourging, no torture. The outcome of 
the interview is : “ Sent Him again to Pilate.” And so it 
happens, that one of the worst rulers of that notorious age, 
a far worse man than Pilate, acknowledged the innocence of 
Christ. But remember—Herod Antipas was King of Galilee ! 

It is a wonderful incident in a wonderful story. If the 
story had been a human invention, or, if the main facts being 
historically true, they had been dramatized for popular effect, 
this King Herod would have acted a very different part. He 
would have been pictured as Shakespeare pictures Macbeth 
and Richard III., adding crime to crime, or, as Milton portrays 
the fallen Archangel, fallen and yet falling, deep opening into 
deep, a lower hell still waiting to receive him. This would 


14 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


have been the art of man dealing with a weak, crafty, vo¬ 
luptuous tyrant, and it would have been, as men reason, “ po¬ 
etic justice.” But the justice of Providence takes a wider 
scope than poetic justice. Dramatic art has its rigid limita¬ 
tions. It can go so far and no farther. It can follow con¬ 
science, remorse, capabilities of evil, only within the range of 
certain sympathies ; in a word, it can only be moral within 
the provisions of poetry. Poetry it must be, first and last. 
The writers of the New Testament, inspired by the Holy 
Ghost, are hampered by no such restraints. If the former is 
like a great river held within its bounds, the latter resembles 
the ocean that sweeps as freely around the continent as around 
a petty island. 

Even when seeming to depart from the rules of literary 
creation, the Gospel narrative moves toward the highest ideal 
of art. One familiar with the history of Herod Antipas in 
his relations to Christ and His work, can have no difficulty in 
finding an exemplification of this truth in the scene, to which, 
reference has been made. This man, though guilty of John’s 
murder, was the creature of his own accidents. Had he been 
left to himself, it is probable, that the horrible deed would 
not have been committed. After that event, he was more 
than ever afraid of the people, and his heart was little at rest 
when he said : “ John have I beheaded, but who is this of 
whom I hear such things?” No doubt he wished Christ out 
of his territory, while acting a hypocrite in expressing a desire 
to see Him. Christ read the man when his agents said to 
Him : “ Get thee out, and depart hence; for Herod will kill 

thee; ” and answered him when he uttered the words : “ Go 
and tell that fox, Behold I cast out devils, and I do cures to¬ 
day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.” 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 15 


And Christ saw him in precisely the same light when he stood 
before him on the morning of the crucifixion. Herod asked Him 
questions but received no reply. The fixed eye, the silent 
look, the withering reserve, were Christ’s part in the inter¬ 
view. Face to face are they, Christ most like himself in the 
consummation of his career, and Herod summoning up in one 
historic hour the royal record of Christ’s ministry in Galilee. 
“ Sent Him again to Pilate !” Crucified must he be, but the 
Roman Procurator and his metropolitan Jews shall do the 
deed. 

And thou—“ Galilee of the Gentiles ” — first to give the 
Blessed Christ of Humanity a home among thy people, shalt. 
not imbrue thy hands at the last in his holy blood. Faults 
and sins hast thou, but this praise is thine forever, that it was 
thy noblest daughters who ministered to Him of their sub¬ 
stance, and the sons of thy heroic heart who were his faithful 
Apostles. 


SECOND ESSAY. 


First View of the Man—His new name a Prophecy—What we are led to 
expect of “ The Rock,” —Miraculous Draught of Fishes—Peter’s 
Temperament—Psychological Questions—One of His Experiences— 
“ More than These,” and the Results—Caesarea Philippi—The Great 
Confession and the Sequel—Peter’s Error an Evidence of His 
Growth—Christ’s Insight—His mode of Dealing with Peter—Mira¬ 
cles—Their use in Christian Culture—Reflections. 

The first view of Peter in the Gospel narrative concentrates 
our attention on the character of the man. Christ instantly 
saw his qualities and as promptly gave Peter to understand 
what he should expect from his discipleship. “ Thou art 
Simon the son of Jonas ; thou slialt be called Cephas, which 
is by interpretation, A Stone.” St. John I. 42. The words 
recognized the instinctive greatness of the man. Raw materials 
were here ; native endowments that contained capacities sus¬ 
ceptible of conversion into positive abilities ; deposits of ex¬ 
perience like coal and iron laid away in the earth for future 
uses ; all these were in the man and he himself unconscious 
meantime of Providence in them. To be called, “ The Rock ; ” 
to be so designated by the Great Teacher, whom his brother, 
Andrew, had announced to him as the Messiah ; to hear the 
very accent of Christ’s heart in the tone of the address ; how 
swift must have been the access to his consciousness and how 
suddenly that consciousness, limited hitherto within the nar¬ 
row scope of a Galilean fisherman’s life, must have been en¬ 
larged ! Already there was a providential history summed up 
in “ The Rock.” That record contained old times, hereditary 
deeds, ancestral influence, and personal training in the rough 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 17 


ways of the sea. Still more was there a prophecy in “ The 
Rock,” and one, moreover, which a strange and diversified 
career would fulfil. In part, the “ interpretation ” of the 
young fisherman’s history was given—when the Lord accepted 
Peter as a disciple, but the prophecy was to unfold its issues 
over a far larger area than Galilee and by means of events 
involving vast changes in the political and religious structure 
of the world. Nations are visible in men, often in a single 
man, before they appear in communities. 

From the outset, then, we have the natural contour of the 
man, Peter. How the general outline will be filled, cannot be 
foreseen. Only we know that he is “The Rock,” and the 
figure teaches us to look for a remarkable experience. 
Figures as Christ used them were not poetic embellishments 
but very practical things, matters of fact set in a most vivid 
light, realities made intensely real. This metaphoric “ rock” 
is not an idea for the imagination to dramatize. It has a pro¬ 
found significance for the reason and informs the judgment 
beforehand as to what is the basic characteristic of the man. 
Firmness of conviction, tenacity of purpose, resolute will, ad¬ 
hesive feeling, are implied as organic constituents of his na¬ 
ture. To understand the future St. Peter, we must have this 
preliminary insight into the fisherman of Tiberias. Sharp 
points will appear in “ The Rock,” crevices too and crags, and, 
at times, disintegration will seem to be threatened. In 
these moments, when the traits of the young Galilean show 
themselves conspicuously, it is helpful to remember that he is, 
nevertheless, “ The Rock.” Nor will this be the only advan¬ 
tage of keeping in mind Christ’s figure, Occasions will occur 
to teach us how, under Divine management, even the rocky 
properties of this man were improved. Some .rocks taken 


18 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


from their beds and used for building purposes, harden in the 
atmosphere and improve by age in the open world. Without 
any strain on the metaphor, we may put Peter in this class of 
rocks. And if so, while noting the difference between “ The 
Rock ” in the fisherman of Tiberias and “ The Rock ” in the 
Apostle of Pentecost, tracing all along the developments of 
character, we shall see in what way and by what means the 
hand of Jesus, supreme in skill, shaped the rude block from 
the Galilean quarry into a beautiful and enduring form for 
his Temple. Christ was not content merely to present his 
Apostles as developed Teachers and authoritative Guides to 
the Christian church. Besides this, He would show the man¬ 
ner of their education as His Witnesses and give us, too, some 
insight, beyond their official education, into that more insen¬ 
sible culture, which took such a marked effect upon them by 
contact with Him in the close fellowship of private hours. 

“ Simon, son of Jonas,” is the starting-point; the St. Peter of 
Pentecost is the objective point; and, lying between these two 
extremes, is the “ Interpretation ” which we are concerned 
with in these essays. 

After this introduction to our notice, Peter passes awhile out 
of view. It was a little leaven and it must have time to work. 
Christ visits Cana, Jeiusalem, Samaria, and returns to Galilee. 
His public Ministry having now been fully opened, we find 
Him one morning in Peter’s boat, speaking to the multitude 
that thronged the shore of the Lake. The discourse had been 
concluded, the people dismissed, when Christ directed Peter 
to move the boat into the deep water and let down the net. 
Peter obeyed the command and the net was filled with fish. 
The miracle was a miracle to Peter’s heart to the depths of 
that heart, and the answer came “out of the depths” in the 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 19 


words: “ Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 
St. Luke, V., 8. One such incident may stand as an illustra¬ 
tion of the supernatural in the Gospels. A moral purpose was 
in view, the purpose was accomplished ; and, overpowered by 
gratitude, wonder, and adoration, the young disciple fell on his 
knees and acknowledged the call to a holier life. Think you, 
that Peter’s sense of Nature, of law in its uniformity, of law as 
he had steadily observed it in the conduct of his business, was 
injured one whit by this act of Christ’s beneficent almight- 
iness? Over nature herself in her productive beauty, was the 
glory less after the miracle than before? Had the wonder 
rested simply in the senses and in the sensuous imagination, 
its spiritual grandeur would have been obscured. On the 
contrary, Peter’s sense of sinfulness is uppermost in the 
startled consciousness of the moment and it excludes all 
other utterance. Has he not been made ready for a great turn¬ 
ing-point .in his life? Some such initial step would appear to 
have been desirable, or, forsooth, necessary in one of his tem¬ 
perament. Christ was a close observer of mens’ temperaments 
and made it a rule of his ministry to approach them through 
their temperaments. Certainly, in this case, He touched 
Peter where he was most impressible. So that when He opens 
the spiritual meaning of the wonderful draught of fishes in the 
words addressed to Peter : “ Fear not: from henceforth thou 
shalt catch men,” the four men “forsook all and followed 
Him.” The openness of Peter’s soul, his keen sagacity, his 
unstudied candor, and, most striking of all, the courageous 
trust of his own impressions, throw the first rays of light on 
Peter as “ The Rock.” And we begin to see likewise where his 
peril will be, viz : in a temperament that puts a very thin par¬ 
tition between acute sensations and most energetic sensibili- 


20 LESSONS FEOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEE. 

ties. To my mind, one of the interesting facts in St. Peter’s 
career is the divine culture of a soul linked in all its fortunes 
with such risky flesh and blood. 

All men have soul and body in close alliance. Some, how¬ 
ever, have soul and body nearer together than others have, and ? 
for all such, the hazards of probation are increased. They are 
out of the normal level. They are exceptionally impress¬ 
ionable, overcharged with impulses, and liable to lose 
their centre of gravity in the nice adjustments of this com¬ 
plicated world. Now, that Peter belonged to this class 
of persons, cannot be doubted. The problem for him 
was to control a nature uncommonly fervid. That was a phys¬ 
iological question as well as a religious question. What of 
the blood formed from a fisherman’s diet? of the air he 
breathed? of the nerves of a sailor’s life? of the habits twisted 
up in ganglia and hidden away in the cells? Grave matters 
these, which have much to do with the future making of the 
man. If so, we shall have to study the education of his ner¬ 
vous system and especially notice how the Lord Jesus superin¬ 
tends this vital part of the work. No growth of mind is possi¬ 
ble without a corresponding growth in the nervous and co-re- 
lated functions ; and, hence, we may be perfectly assured, that 
if this Galilean fisherman become an influential Apostle, he 
will have to acquire the art of governing those excitable 
nerves. Specially for him, a great deal depends on learning 
to keep the body under. 

Pass now to the exciting scene on the Lake of Tiberias, the 
night following the Feeding of Five Thousand. If we connect 
the occurrences of the day and night, we shall be qualified the 
better to judge of Peter’s action. Remember that the Twelve 
had now been called to the Apqstolate, the Sermon on the 


LESSONS EEOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


21 


Mount had been delivered as the first exposition of the princi¬ 
ples constituting the new Kingdom, John the Baptist had been 
murdered, and one of the great crises in Christ’s life was at 
hand. A miracle had been wrought for the benefit of the mul¬ 
titude, and, for the first time, a mass of people, gathered from 
villages and towns, had been the recipients of His divine 
bounty. Was not this the Messiah, and just the Messiah 
needed ? The excited throng would take Him at once and make 
Him a King. No doubt, the new Apostles, flushed with ambi¬ 
tious hopes, sympathized with the popular demonstration. 
No doubt, too, Peter entered most fully into the earthly spirit 
of the occasion. It was Galilean in the extreme, Galilean 
throughout, and most perilous because so characteristically 
Galilean. Christ managed the affair with consummate prudence, 
dismissed the crowd, sent the disciples in a boat across the 
Lake, and hastened away to the solitude that He might find 
strength and peace in prayer. To-morrow would bring a most 
painful duty. This illusion on the part of his admirers as to 
a secular Messiahship was to be dissipated at once ; and, more 
than ever before, the word about to be spoken was to be a two- 
edged sword, sharp, piercing, dividing asunder the carnal and 
the spiritual. For that critical conjuncture in his Ministry, 
He would make Himself ready. And He would likewise 
prepare the disciples, indirectly at least, and specially His 
servant Peter, for the coming trial of their moral firmness. 
A storm descended on the Lake and the boat struggled with the 
waters. Com munion with the Father had refreshed his spirit; 
the issues of to-morrow in Capernaum were settled ; and He 
hastened to join the disciples who were battling with the 
tempestuous sea. Drawing near to the boat, He appeared as 
a phantom moving past them and they cried out for fear. 


22 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

Then came the words: “It is I; be not afraid. The assu¬ 
rance of that Presence calmed them and they were content. 
But, of course, Peter must signalize the occasion as a personal 
affair and connect his fortunes with the wonders of the sight. 
“ Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.” 
And the Lord said: “Come!” Bravely enough he started; a 
momentary impulse had a momentary triumph and then a 
defeat, for he began to sink in the waters and sinking cried; 
“ Lord, save me!” Jesus rescued him and said: “ O thou of 
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” St. Matthew XIV, 
22, 32. 

It was like Peter to do just that thing, at that precise in¬ 
stant One has no difficulty in believing that the excitement 
of the previous day had continued in his nerves. Neither 
toil at the oar nor tempest in the air had quieted that thrill of 
glad expectation which had fired his blood, when seeing Galilee 
about to arise and proclaim his Master as the King of the 
land. And now walking on the waters—was not that more 
than a royal wonder ? Such a day, such a night ; what an op¬ 
portunity to do “ MOEE THAN THESE,” to put forth “ MOEE ” 
reverence and homage and impulse “ than these,” the good 
and the evil, the divine and the human, intermixed in his 
motives and aspirations ! Too deferential towards the Lord’s 
authority not to ask His permission to come to Him on the 
waters, and fully sensible of his inability to do it unless sus¬ 
tained by Him, Peter was nevertheless dominated by a sensa¬ 
tional imagination that inspired a desire for a false self-dis¬ 
play. “ More than these ” was his besetment, and “ more than 
these ” was now over-ruled by Christ to teach him a lesson in 
sobriety of thought and moderation of personal intensity. 
And, doubtless, the great-hearted man was better for the wis- 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 23 


dom which the Lord Jesus extracted for him out of his rash 
experience. For after He had disenchanted his Capernaum 
hearers by preaching so sternly against their secular hopes of 
the Messiah and declaring “ Except ye eat the flesh of the 
Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you,” 
many were offended and forsook Him. In the pathos of that 
hour, Jesus asked the Twelve : “Will ye also go away?” And 
Peter spoke for himself and them when he answered: “ Lord, 
to w r hom shall we go ! Thou hast the words of eternal life. 
And we b^lmve and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God.” St. John VI. 67-69. One may con¬ 
jecture, that the painful experience of the impetuous and 
over-confident Peter, the night previously, had produced a 
wholesome effect and that the effect shows itself in the con¬ 
fession of Christ as the “ Son of the living God.” Not, indeed, 
that Peter understood the full import of the words. But they 
were words from the heart of the man, and, as our greatest 
words often are, they were in advance of the exact comprehen¬ 
sion of the intellect. Had they not been the words of one res¬ 
cued by the mercy of Christ from drowning, I can scarcely 
think, that they would have had that special intensity, by 
which they are distinguished. If so, may we not suppose, 
that a reaction from the influence of yesterday’s miracle of 
feeding the five thousand and the ambitious scheme which 
grew therefrom to make Christ a worldly king, had taken 
place in Peter’s mind? Just then the atmosphere of Galilee 
was surcharged with rashness. Its citizens were ready to take 
Him and force him to be a king. Peter was the most danger¬ 
ous man, at that juncture, in all Galilee. So, at least, I ven¬ 
ture to think. And the rashness of the man in his disciple- 
ship was allowed by the Divine Master to vent itself in the 


24 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


exploit on the waters, a most timely experience under circum¬ 
stances then existing. The extra accumulation of electricity 
in Peter was drawn off before the other heavy cloud was 
made to discharge its threatening contents. So when the 
testing moment came, and “ many of his disciples went back 
and walked no more with him,” the brave though spasmodic 
Peter was in the right mood to stand fast by his Lord and 
witness a good confession. Physical reactions are often most 
timely helpers, and, in this instance he was indebted to one 
of these reactions for special furtherence in a right^ direction. 
Body with its blood and nerves and brain, no less than soul 
with its volition and emotions, had passed through an episode 
which now returns and takes its providential place in the 
current movements of history. Peter the fisherman will 
shortly reappear in Peter the disciple and in the embryo 
Apostle, but he has learned a most useful lesson and turned it 
to immediate account in this crisis of his Lord’s Galilean 
ministry. 

See him next at Caesarea Philippi. Opposition to Christ has 
widened and deepened. Spies from Jerusalem are thronging 
Galilee. Sadducees and Pharisees are drawing closer together 
and their rivalries are held in abeyance while they join guilty 
hands for his destruction. The mutual jealousies of these sects 
has hindered united action; and though each party has been a 
party against Him, yet each has adhered to its own line of in¬ 
dependent hostility. So far, He has been the gainer bv the 
attitude of these powerful sects towards each other. But now 
the initial steps have been taken towards that confederation 
which was to doom Him to death. Christ foresaw the result. 
His plans were arranged in view of that result. Nothing in 
his external Providence was more wonderful than that system 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 25 


of internal Providence, under which, He conducted the inter¬ 
ests of His Kingdom as they bore directly upon Himself and 
His disciples. A sphere lay within a sphere, a private life 
beneath a public life, and to this select world, He betook 
Himself and thither bore his work as the need arose. Such a 
need had now transpired. Acting with His usual prudence, 
He withdrew from Galilee and bent his footsteps northward, 
and here in this semi-pagan country, an exile from his own 
land, the shadow of death resting there for His return, He 
asks the disciples: “ Whom do men say that I the Son of Man 
am ? The lhournful answer was given—an echo faithful to the 
public voice. And then followed a question, of far deeper im¬ 
port: “ But whom say ye that I am ?” Peter replied: “Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” If the first 
question brought out the results of Christ’s refusal to be made 
a popular king and the effect of his subsequent discourse at 
Capernaum on the Bread of Life, it is equally clear, that Peter 
has not forgotten the memorable night when Christ saved him 
from drowning nor the warmth of his confession not long 
afterwards: “Thou art the Holy one of God.” The two 

confessions indicate the progress of Peter’s thought and quite 
as certainly an advance in experience. Taken in connection 
with the Capernaum discourse, the first confession would seem 
to refer more particularly to Christ as the Great Teacher who 
had “the words of eternal life.” The confession at Caesarea 
Philippi has a fuller tone and a broader emphasis. It recog¬ 
nizes the essential Personality of Christ, the Divine Sonship 
as distinct from the mere Mesiahship, and it states this so 
clearly and so amply, as to draw from Christ the acknowledg¬ 
ment that it was a revelation from the Father. “ Thou art 
Peter,” said Jesus, and, in this new light of a blessed trans- 


26 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


figuration, lie stands before us as a typical believer. Very 
soon the imperfections of the man will force themselves on 
our notice and yet these will have a specific cast and remind 
us of a difference between their later and former aspects. It 
is apparent to my mind, that the ideal Peter, the man of large 
dimensions and of spiritual discernment, rises here for the 
first time into commanding view, and, by the testimony of the 
Lord Himself, has a horizon appropriated to Him as a colossal 
figure. “ On this rock ”— the rock of that confession, the 
fundamental truth to which such unequivocal witness had been 
borne—“ ON this rock ” whereon thou standest as Peter, “ I 
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it.” And'to this ideal Peter, now outlining a character 
and an office not yet made real, “ I will give the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth shall be loosed in heaven.” St. Matt. XVI. 

The hour had come for another step in the development of 
doctrine. Two things seemed clear, viz: that public opinion 
respecting Christ was understood and that the views of the 
disciples had grown to be fast-rooted convictions. Conscious¬ 
ness is educated in part by contrast and this contrast is two¬ 
fold, putting its present state in comparison with the past and 
exhibiting it as antithetic to the state of others. Such an 
experience had now been reached by the disciples. Was it not 
proper then to lift the veil of futurity a little higher? Christ 
proceeded to do this by telling his chosen that He should be 
rejected and put to death. How could this be, if indeed He 
was the “ Son of the Living God? ” Men had murdered phi¬ 
losophers, benefactors, prophets; men had made martyrs of 
reformers and heroes; even no less a person than John the 


LESSONS FKOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER 27 


Baptist, greatest among those born of women, had been cruelly 
butchered to grace a festival; but were it possible for this fate 
to be the lot of the Son of God? It was a mystery, a shock¬ 
ing mystery. It must be figurative, it was too horrible to be 
real. 

The dominant feeling found expression as usual in Peter. 
Though so marked in his individuality, he was more distinc¬ 
tively characterized by his large personality. This it was that 
enabled him to interpret the public opinion of the little group 
of Christ’s followers and act as their mouthpiece. Beneath 
all his qualities was a temperament that could not tolerate 
silence when agitated by emotion. Had he. said nothing in 
that hour, or, if speaking, he had spoken wisely, one would 
feel that he was developing at a very uhnatural rate into a 
thoughtful and considerate man. Peter had to learn the 
right by blundering into the wrong. True, he had a noble 
heart; true also that he had undergone some bitter experience. 
But there were those refractory nerves and it takes a longer 
time to get them under discipline than to instruct the mere 
intellect in right ways of thinking. No wonder, then, that 
Peter “ took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, “ Be it 
far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee.” St. Mat¬ 
thew XYI, 22. 

At the instant, the ideal Peter, whom we had just before seen 
in such a lofty attitude, vanished out of view. Has he really 
gone? Has he fallen quite back into Peter the fisherman? 
By no means; a cloud has lowered suddenly upon him; 
but he is still there, the same prospective Peter; and if many 
a hour must pass before the dark vapor scatters, the profile 
shall soon appear struggling against the shadows and re-pict- 
uring its imperishable lines. The infirmity, so apparent in 


28 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


this case, is not the sort of infirmity formerly exhibited, 
but is evidently a reaction from that exalted state of mind 
which had realized and acknowledged the Deity of Christ. So 
that the nature of his error and the extent to which it reached, 
of a rebuke addressed to his Lord, shows in its peculiar 
quality the progress Peter had made in discipleship. It was a 
most mistaken enthusiasm but it was an enthusiasm. Rash 
and presumptuous, it was yet the instinctive utterance of one 
who could not reconcile humiliation, obloquy, death, with the 
gJory of the Son of God. Christ saw where Peter’s danger 
lay. It was the danger of imperfect virtue, of truth partially 
held, of temptation on the better side of his nature. “ Our 
pleasant vices punish us,” and so do our virtues if left too 
much to their blind instincts. To this evil, Peter was exposed. 
Christ detected the subtle mischief and immediately revealed 
it to his servant. “ Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an 
offence unto me; for thou savorest not the things that be of 
God, but those that be of man. St. Matt. XYI. 28. It was not 
simply the man Peter but the man plus a positive satanic in¬ 
fluence. Not that it was th^ toad squatting by the ear asleep 
and injecting thoughts into dreams, but that more insidious 
and persuasive agency which enters us in waking hours. 
At such times, men flatter themselves that they are sole mas¬ 
ters of their purposes and actions. There is an enhancement 
of their self-conscious power. Yet in these moments, Satan 
is in close partnership with their wills and aims. In their 
higher nature, he is less liable to be suspected, and Uriel en¬ 
throned in the sun sees only in him the the “ stripling cherub ” 
that smiled celestial ” and wore the wings 

“ Of many a colored plume, sprinkled with gold.” 

Six months before this period, Teter could not have been 


LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEE. 29 


made the unconscious medium of a satanic temptation like 
this. He had grown in nearness to his Lord, in sympathy 
with his character and external work, and just because he had 
thus grown, Satan undertook to use what insight Peter had 
by renewing through him the temptation in the wilderness. 
And, accordingly, we may regard this occurrence as a new 
point of departure in Peter’s development. The indignation 
of the Lord Jesus must have startled him, for he w r as one of 
those men who develop under SHOcks, and, up to a certain 
point, can be educated in no other way. Like volcanic regions 
that have become fertile and beautifully verdant from the 
ashes of old eruptions, such men under the Holy Spirit in 
Providence reduce their violent impulses to calm and steady 
habits. Peter, at this juncture, must have felt keenly the re¬ 
buke in that severe word “ offence,” the more so as he was 
put by the Lord in such vivid contrast with himself in his 
recent confession, So it is, however, in all the profoundest 
lessons of life. Providence appoints our times to learn and 
the Spirit gives the instruction. The outw ard and the inward 
coalesce and the gracious work is done. If the stars in their 
course fought against Sisera, they fight too on the side of 
goodness. The hours know r their ordinances and keep their 
faith with virtue and truth. Peter had just had a season of 
exaltation; the tempter comes and Peter is humbled, But the 
Lord Jesus seized the occasion to impress on him and the 
other disciples that they had to take up the cross and follow^ 
Him. It is a true picture of religious life. All of us wlio are 
serving God, have our periods of lofty consciousness, “ hours 
of visitation,” and when we descend from our miniature 
Tabors, what [painful surprises meet us at the base of the 
Mount! Little thought w r e that such exceptional blessedness 


30 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

was to have such a sequel of exceptional trial. But it is pre¬ 
cisely in this way, we learn to bear the cross and follow Christ. 

Reviewing the ground traversed, may we not gain some in¬ 
sight into Christ’s method of training the human mind for his 
service? No such instance of specialized discipline is pre¬ 
sented in the Gospels. How does it proceed? The local and 
circumstantial form the framework in everything, nor are the 
most familiar interests of life lost sight of for a moment. 
Christ begins with the every-day heart and takes Peter just 
where he was simple, artless, unperverted Peter. The miracle 
of the fishes was a natural starting-point for his education in 
the supernatural. Instantly, the proper effect of a miracle is 
realized, the wonder assumes a spiritual cast, the emotions are 
those of gratitude and humility, and, plainly enough, the doc¬ 
trine in the divine act moves the genuine sentiments of his soul. 
So too in healing Peter’s mother-in-law—the guest of the fam¬ 
ily is the wonder-worker. The same principle pervades all 
the “ mighty works.” No pomp, no display for amazement, 
no marvels for the imagination, but calm and deep and holy ap¬ 
peals to sentiments which nature loves to have addressed. 
Too active were these sentiments in Peter to allow a doubt as 
to the divineness of Christ’s character; and we may learn from 
him, that if the pure instincts of the heart had such a control 
over the intellect as their authority entitles them to exert, we 
should hear no more of miracles as antagonistic to a belief in 
the uniformity of law and the majestic order of the Universe. 
The idea of law is greater than its uniformity, which, as a re¬ 
sult assured to us by the Infinite Intelligence, is only one, con¬ 
fessedly a great one, of its innumerable aspects. Physical se¬ 
quences are the lowest expression of order in the sublime ar¬ 
rangements of the Universe. Mental laws take precedence of 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 31 


all other laws and these exhibit their perfection in St. Peter 
when, in a surprise of humility and joy, he acknowledged the 
glory of Christ in his “mighty works.” One day, St. Peter 
himself shall work miracles. A lame man at the Beautiful 
Gate of the Temple will be cured. iEneas at Lydda, eight 
years a palsied man, shall hear the words: “Jesus Christ 
maketh thee whole.” Tabitha shall feel the breath of his 
prayer on her brow and waken from the sleep of death. For 
these blessed tasks, St. Peter is now in training. His moods 
fluctuate. His mind lives and acts in contrasts strongly 
marked. But, hereafter, he will be a greater wonder than any 
thing he can do, so mnch so, indeed, that his soul will impart 
its life even to his shadow. Christ is preparing him for this 
Apostleship of wisdom, love, and sympathy, and He is doing it 
by showing him that miracles are the media of doctrinal 
teachings, and that the human heart, if its instincts be divinely 
quickened, has the capacity to see and feel the God of Nature 
in them as its Father. 


THIRD ESSAY. 


Christ’s Transfiguration—St, Peter—Another aspect of Miracles— 
Specific Influence of the Transfiguration—“ Tell no Man ”—Power 
of Secresy—Need of this training for St, Peter—Unconscious De¬ 
velopment—St. Peter for a time out of View—Last Supper—Scene 
in Gethsemane—Denial of his Lord—Circumstances under which it 
Occurred—Reflections on the Intellectual and Moral aspects of 
Charity—Peter’s Fail—Physiological View—Incapacity for Appre¬ 
hension—Illustrations from Shakespeare and Milton—Fidelity of 
Evangelists in describing his Character—Art beyond Art—St. Peter 
as a Typical Man. 

Our next view of St. Peter connects him with Christ’s Trans¬ 
figuration. About a week had elapsed after the occurrence at 
Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus took three of the Apostles and 
ascended “the mountain.” Most of his work as a public 
Teacher, as an earthly Friend and Benefactor, as a philan¬ 
thropic Miracle-Worker, had been accomplished. Men had 
been taught what material Nature was in his hands, how its 
laws were his laws and subject to his infinite designs, and they 
had been made to see, in some measure, what the Providential 
System of the new Kingdom included as to the physical ad¬ 
vancement of the human race. 

Further on, I shall return to this topic. At present, I re¬ 
mark, that the senses and the sense—intellect had to be tu¬ 
tored to a certain extent, as auxiliary to a higher work; nor 
would Christ fail to show, first of all, in the order of time, 
how dear to Him the human body was in its relations to the 
economy of the Universe. To help the poor, to heal the sick, 
to cheer desolate hearts with the offices of tender sympathy, to 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 33 

brighten the whole landscape of life in his native land, and 
thereby present the external phasis of the Gospel as superior 
to the outward benefits of Judaism, had been the initial task of 
his Ministry. Judaism was incompetent to such a regenera¬ 
tion of these lower interests of society; and hence, the contrast 
was to be distinctly set forth by Christ Himself between the 
old and new methods of Providence, and the first exposition of 
the truth given that godliness—such godliness as He taught— 
was profitable unto all things and had promise of life here and 
hereafter. Without those miracles, I do not see how He could 
have impressed the sensuous intellect of a Jew with his supe¬ 
riority to Moses, nor, in what way, a mind like St. Peter’s could 
have been educated for the Apostleship. Christianity was 
thus luminously exhibited as far better adapted to civilization 
than J udaism, while, in harmony with this earthward view, its 
spiritual offices were more forcibly presented. All this had 
now been done. Looking at Christianity as a displacing 
force in respect to Judaism, it strikes me, that an intelligent 
Jew might find, in these miracles, the most solid ground, on 
which he could tread in passing over from Moses to Christ. 
He would lose nothing; he would gain every way. Miracles, 
in due time, were to cease. They were provisional. They had 
been such under Judaism. But the idea was not tempo¬ 
rary. It was more than an idea; it was by eminence a senti¬ 
ment—the sentiment indeed of Christian Philanthropy. 
Every miracle of beneficence which Christ wrought was a pro¬ 
phetic assurance of his abiding Presence in the church. Like 
Him, it was “ expedient ” that these wonders should “ go 
away” in order to return in a form more glorious and on a 
theatre far wider. Syro-Phoenician mothers were all over the 
world, masters with sick servants, fathers with lunatic sons, 


34 LESSONS FEOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEE. 

Marthas and Marys with the shadow of the grave upon their 
hearts; and the Christ of Miracles was to come back to our 
sorrowing humanity in an Organic Providence operating 
through the Church. Through the Church but not confined to 
its institutions; for the Christ of Miracles, embodied in this 
nineteenth century, is doing much of the same work before our 
eyes by means of science and art. Miracles were needed to 
show science and art what they were competent to do by the 
grace of Providence. Had there boen no such display of 
Christ’s sovereignty over nature, man’s sovereignty in the 
external world could not have been restored to him. The 
sceptre once in his hands had been lost; it was recovered for 
him by Christ and the divine lesson taught how it was to be 
used. And we find accordingly, that the most numerous and 
helpful institutions of Modern charity are precisely those 
which accord most nearly with the modes of Philanthropy that 
Christ devised and then exemplified in his “ mighty works.” 
Surely, these, his miracles, are the last thing that men of 
science arid art should question, since they are indebted to them 
for the great sphere, in which, they contribute so much to the 
welfare of society. They themselves are the best proofs of the 
miracles. But, as I said, this part of Christ’s mission had 
been mostly fulfilled. And now, as the former eras of his 
Ministry have been well defined, how shall this new epoch 
open? It was the last and the most memorable; in what way 
shall it be inaugurated? 

One can see quite clearly on what path He has been ad¬ 
vancing, viz: the fuller development of his Divine Personality. 
Are his disciples ready for a brighter manifestation of 
Himself? St. Peter’s two confessions would indicate that 
intellectually, at least, they are prepared for a change in his 
method of instruction. 




LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 35 


The change is initiated in a remarkable way as to form and 
accompaniments. Little thought Peter, John, and James, as 
they ascended to the topmost solitude of the mountain, what a 
spectacle of sublimity awaited them. “ Son of the Living 
God.” St. Peter had said; and now, what a disclosure of that 
Sonship! Never could he forget what had happened there¬ 
after, and what a solemn rebuke had been administered to his 
heedless and overwrought energy, nor could he fail to bear 
about him the recollection of what he had learned touching 
Christ’s sufferings and death. Another revelation of the same 
kind was now about to occur. Christ was transfigured before 
the three Apostles, and, in the splendor investing Him and 
radiating its glory upon them, Moses and Elijah appeared by 
his side and “ spake of his decease which He should accom¬ 
plish at Jerusalem.” The visitors were departing, the mag¬ 
nificence waning, when Peter exclaimed: “Master, it is good 
to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for Thee, 
and one for Moses, and one for Elias; not knowing what he 
said.” But Christ made no answer to his words. Yet there 
was a voice and its utterance was: “ This is my beloved Son; 
hear Him.” The resplendent scene vanished from the eye 
the voice was hushed, and Jesus stood alone with them and the 
returning night. What a mystery all this to the disciples! 
Aroused from sleep, they had seen that “ the fashion of his 
countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and 
glistening,” and, amid the grandeur of the scene, a cloud now 
overshadowed them and a voice added its wonder in the brief 
words: “This is my beloved Son: hear Him.” St. Mark, 
Chap. IX. He was to tell them henceforth of his sufferings 
and death: “hear Him.” These truths from his lips would 
conflict with their favorite Messianic views; prejudices of the 


36 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


most obstinate Jewish cast would be sorely tried; but “ hear 
Him.” The “ cross ” of which they had before heard some¬ 
thing would be enlarged upon and their personal relations to 
it come into fuller view, their ministerial relations likewise, 
but, in the face of all: “hear Him.” This was the Transfig¬ 
uration to them as disciples and Apostles. This was to be 
their share in the glory beheld; these the beams of celestial 
beauty which were to irradiate their countenances in days 
long afterwards when danger threatened and death was not 
far off; and this the august presence of heavenly sympathy and 
helpfulness they were to enjoy when the darkest of earthly 
nights would fold its shadows closely about them. 

But, meantime, how was this disclosure of Christ’s Sonship 
and Office to take effect, and especially its specific influence to 
be exerted ? Clearly enough, the Transfiguration stands within 
the regular order of the Divine manifestation. Clearly 
enough, it is differenced by a striking individuation from 
other modes of manifestation. At Cana, in the “beginningof 
miracles,” Jesus “ manifested forth his glory.” So on various 
occasions; the manifestations taking a wide public range and 
producing certain uniform effects. This scene on the moun¬ 
tain was private. Christ had generally avoided any displays 
of his divine power at night, and, if He departed, as in the 
present instance, from this habit, it made the habit more 
conspicuous. Again, Moses and- Elijah, were parties to 
the scene. Furthermore, only three Apostles were permitted 
to see this manifestation. Evidently, therefore, it had the 
common element of all the manifestations, and accordingly, 
takes its proper position in his historical career. Quite as 
obviously, it has something specific and as such must be con¬ 
templated in its own aspects. This specialty of character was 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 37 


recognized by Christ when He “ charged them, saying, Tell 
the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from 
the dead.” So far as other disciples and the outside world 
were concerned, the fact contained a truth for prospective 
use, while in their own case, it was not only a secret but an 
emphasized secret. Was it a transcendent display of the 
Deity of Christ? And of that Deity, moreover, not in con¬ 
nection with the ordinary cast of his miracles, but an antici¬ 
pation of the changed order of miracles that should be inaugu¬ 
rated by his resurrection? We know how his posthumous 
Ministry, both as to word and act, contrasted with his pre-cru¬ 
cifixion Ministry, the latter conforming to the ruling idea of 
humiliation, sorrow, death, and the former embodying the 
features of a Semi-Glorified state. If, then, the Transfigura¬ 
tion appealed to a higher sense of spirituality in the three . 
Apostles than any other event in Christ’s earthly life, it seems 
reasonable to conclude, that whatever influence it could exert 
over their religious growth, would be conditioned on absolute 
secrecy. And agreeably to the reticence, would be the quality 
of the effect produced. Our consciousness derives much of 
its culture by acting on others. In this instance, however, a 
barrier against that kind of development was interposed by the 
injunction of silence. The unconscious portion of these 
men’s nature would consequently be brought into greater 
activity and the work of divine culture would progress in its 
divinest form. It was theirs to be faithful to the •divine secret. 
It was for the secret to do its blessed work just in the way 
and to the extent that Christ ordained. 

Above all the Apostles, St. Peter needed the precise training 
that such a profound and holy secret would give one of his 
temperament and constitution. Unconsciousness of self was 


38 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


what he most needed. Unconsciousness of self could not be had 
by any method so effective as silence. Already he had entered 
on the era of higher spiritual growth and the unexplained 
secret of the Transfiguration would stimulate that growth. How 
could one, put under such a restraint, fail to ponder on the 
mystery, to brood over its meanings, to catch a glimpse now 
and then of its significance, and to long for a fuller under¬ 
standing and the liberty of speech! AVords are most potent 
as images to imagination when they have no voice. A most 
useful check it was on his impetuosity, a bodily education 
side by side with discipline of mind, the very thing most 
essential to blood and nerves no less than to imagination and 
judgment and volition, most of all the pre-requisite schooling 
to secure that unity of character, in which, he was so lacking. 
To get truths fixed in the intellect, to domesticate them as 
home elements in the heart, to give them confidence and sym¬ 
pathy, this is our main work. Without interference on our 
part, they will do much for us. By new associations of their 
their own choosing, by suggestions inexplicable on any theory 
of personal volition, by spontaneous activity in idle moments 
and in nightly dreams, they cany on their hidden processes of 
development. Who can tell what agencies Providence em¬ 
ploys to operate in their expansion? Who can calculate the 
number, variety, subtlety, scope and power, of those accesses 
which the Spirit of God has to truths out of immediate con¬ 
sciousness and sunk far down in the depths of our being? 
All real growth must have a conscious element, must be vol¬ 
untary, must proceed from personal attention and watchful 
oversight. But the best growth sets us aside and comes 
directly from God. Much of the best in us is there in despite 
of us. And this unconscious force of development was or- 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 39 


dained by the Lord Jesus for Peter when He said : “ Tell 
NO man.” Of all things, it was the most alien from his 
vehement strength and unregulated impulses. Yet from that 
day, his slow transformation had a new and most vital quick¬ 
ening. 

Excepting the incident connected with the Temple tax, Peter 
has for a time no prominence. Some matters transpire of special 
interest as indicating the drift of events, notably the eagerness 
of Christ’s family that He should make a public demonstra¬ 
tion of Himself at the approaching Feast of Tabernacles. 
Not long after the Feast, the occurrence in Samaria took place, 
but it was James and John who wished to call down fire from 
heaven on the inhospitable Samaiitans. Subsequently to this 
period, when Christ was in Peroea and received the intelligence 
of Lazarus’ illness, it was Thomas who said: “ Let us also go 
that we may die with him.” Further on in the history, it was 
James and John, “sons of Thunder,” sons of the ambitious 
Salome, who would have chief places in Christ’s kingdom, 
thinking that they could drink of His cup and be baptized 
with His baptism. The anointing at Bethany brought Judas 
into prominence. Palm Sunday came on with its procession, 
its waving palms, its shouts of men, its hosannas of children, 
but w^e hear nothing of Peter’s impulsiveness. If the Greeks 
wished to see Jesus, they sought through Philip an introduc¬ 
tion to Him. During these closing months of Christ’s career, 
Peter is scarcely visible, and never, on any occasion does he 
act the part of his former self. That mystery of the Trans¬ 
figuration and the~“ Tell no man,” the infinite secret and his 
solitary communings, were working out a legitimate experience 
in the depths of his nature. The clay was then in the hands 
of the potter. Seasons are divinely given to every man when 


40 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

lie cannot interfere with God’s work, and such a season was 
now granted to St. Peter. The “Rock ” lay still, and, whether 
sunshine or shadow rested upon its surface, the calm eaith 
held it firmly to her bosom. 

Amid the exciting scenes of the middle portion of Passion 
Week, we have a glimpse of Peter. Sadducees and Pharisees 
had put forth all their learned ingenuity and popular skill 
in debates with the Lord Jesus. At every point, they 
had been foiled. Their utter overthrow on all questions in 
dispute had been reserved by Him till the last moment and 
that moment had come and gone. The only logic left them 
was that of violence and to this He would make no resistance, 
his triumph on all other grounds having been complete and 
their final failure having been self-attested by the infamous 
resort, to which, they were driven. Then followed the many 
“ woes ” and the farewell to the Temple. The closing day 
found Jesus and His disciples resting on Olivet, and, as the 
fading light added its pathos to the hour, the thoughts of all 
turned to the Temple and the Holy City that had already 
entered on a twilight deepening into a night of awful gloom. 
“ When shall these things be? ” But it was “ Peter and James 
and John and Andrew ”—not the impulsive and self-asserting 
Peter—who “asked Him privately ” of these things. 

Not long after, Peter rises in full view again. It was during 
the scene of the Last Supper when Jesus rose from the supper 
and “laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girded 
Himself.” Nothing was said till He came to Peter whose 
quick spirit and ardent emotions made resistance in the words: 
“Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said 
unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now; but thou shalt 
know hereafter. Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never 




LESSONS FKOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEK. 41 

wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou 
hast no part with Me. Simon Peter saitli unto Him, Lord, 
not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” St. John, 
XIII, 4, 9. Here, we have Peter in the full array of his qual¬ 
ities, the whole nature of the man in action, nothing disguised, 
nothing assumed; and we have this disclosure of his charac¬ 
teristics under circumstances of touching impressiveness. 
The past re-appears—not altogether such as it was—but sub¬ 
dued and chastened. It is not sensation that excites sensi¬ 
bility but sensibility arousing sensation, a reverse in his 
earlier habit as to its mode of action. For a moment, he 
is resolute, obstinate, and the “ shalt never ” has a strong 
accent. A word from Jesus hastens a reaction and he rushed 
to the other extreme and asks more than the Lord had pro¬ 
posed to do. The good and the evil, the good that had been 
shaping itself in character and the evil still lurking in his 
original nature, dashed suddenly against each .other; and the 
rapid transition in his moods was well nigh hysterical. A 
want of imagination, a 'deficiency of perception, a lack of do¬ 
cility and instant submissiveness, are obvious. Yet the defects 
are close neighbors to atoning virtues which are quick to make 
reparation with full measure, running over. The inherent 
greatness of the man shows itself in this one thing, that his 
weak parts are surface qualities and discharge their activity 
in immediate emotion. They are quick to' act and 
as quick to feel a reaction. They are soon appeased 
and, for the time, ask nothing more. On the other hand, the 
strong constituents of the man are deep within him, inter- 
blended with primal instincts, and nourished by the vital for¬ 
ces of genuine manhood. But this duality, because of which, 
the victory is ever changing sides, cannot continue. 


42 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


And now the test-hour is near and coming on in the stealth¬ 
iness of the night and darker than the night. Christ, had 
spoken of going away and Peter had asked: “ Whither goest 
Thou?” He replied that He was going whither Peter could 
not follow Him then but should follow Him afterwards. Why 
not now? “ I will lay down my life for thy sak6.” And Jesus 
answered: “ Wilt thou? ” And then came the “ verily, verily,” 
and after this forerunning emphasis, the declaration that “ the 
the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.” The 
Farewell Discourse and Prayer followed. All through thes e 
exercises, Peter was silent. What could he say while the 
tones of that prophecy lingered on his ear? The scene 
changed to Gethsemane, the night went on and the terrible 
conflict with it, the struggling Humanity of Christ meeting 
the crisis in his own lonely heart and winning tranquillity from 
agony. And how like a refrain are the words of Jesus: 
“Simon, sleepest thou? coulds’t not thou watch one hour?” 
And from that sleep, Peter never fully awoke till the tears of 
repentance bore off the slumbering deadness from his heart. 
“ Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit 
truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” St. Mark, XIY, 37, 38. 
But the exhortation was unheeded and the weak flesh pre¬ 
vailed. The traitor came with his band and they carried 
“ lanterns and torches and weapons ” as though they expected 
serious work. “ Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus 
of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am He.” Power de¬ 
parted from them and they were prostrated on the ground, the 
twin-incident of that other event, three days thereafter, when 
the sentinels around Christ’s sepulchre fell to the earth as 
dead men. Omnipotence had revealed itself; a breath had 
achieved a wonder; and now Christ permits Himself to be 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 43 

taken and is the self-surrendered victim of the Sanhedrim. 
Ah, this same Sanhedrim shall hear three days hence from its 
own soldiers, that He has risen, and the narrative of his divine 
yielding shall find its counterpart in the history of his triumph 
over the Sanhedrim and the Sanhedrim’s guarded tomb where 
He lay as their dead prisoner. Peter will soon pass out of view 
for three memorable days, but he is prominent now and ready 
to meet “ torches and lanterns and weapons ” on their own 
ground. It is an occasion that suits his fiery zeal and he 
draws his sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus, a servant of 
the High Priest. Jesus interposed, stopped the opening of a 
bloody drama, and restored the servant’s ear. From the 
moment, the sword was sheathed—Peter was a fallen man. 

The natural sequel hastens to completion. 

John, and afterwards Peter, had been admitted to the outer 

/ 

court of the High Priest’s house and were awaiting the issue 
of Christ’s Jewish trial. Could circumstances have been more 
unpropitious for Peter? The exciting scenes of the night, the 
vivid alternations of feeling, the arrest laid on his physical 
courage, the torpor of sleep and the confused sensations of 
waking hours, the chill of the morning, the place, the company 
about him, were all calculated to imperil his position. What 
to him at the moment was the meaning of Discipleship, of the 
Apostleship? What were Caesarea Philippi and the Transfig¬ 
uration? Every hope had suddenly perished, every aspiration 
had mocked him, and even the love and devotion borne to his 
Master had not been allowed to assert themselves according to 
his sense of courage and manliness. There are revulsions of 
feeling that disgust us with our virtues and make us open like 
the Psalmist to a belief, that we “ have cleansed ” our hearts 
“ in vain ” and “ washed ” our “ hands in innocency.” Men are 


44 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEK. 


always weakest when the past has been wrenched away, and, in 
this trying hour, Peter broke with the past. The denial of his 
Lord had nothing equivocal; it was bold, and repeated; nor 
did it stop till it reached its shocking climax in oaths and 
curses. But, if the scene and its lower associations had thus 
combined against him and tempted his troubled spirit until he 
had incurred a fearful guilt, they were not to leave alone upon 
him the impress of shame and humiliation. The scene and its 
higher connections had a divine work to do and it was done. 
Christ was near by. Great as were his own sorrows, He could 
not forget in that critical hour of Peter’s history, the interests 
of his friend, disciple, and Apostle. Not a word was said. 
“ And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter 
remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said unto him, 
Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter 
went out and w'ept bitterly.” St. Luke, XXII, 61, 62. The 
fall of Peter was sudden and rapid, but even more quickly 
than that were his self-recollection and the anguish of 
repentance. 

To Judge Peter harshly is not to judge him humanly and 
still less divinely. Christ was not simply merciful but very 
tenderly merciful. There was no public reproof, no humilia¬ 
tion of his friend and follower in the sight of his enemies, not 
a drop of unnecessary bitterness added to the cup of sorrow . 
If He, who “ knoweth our .frame and remembereth that we 
are dust, could bear with him so kindly, so pathetically and 
yet so truthfully, surely we of “ like passions” with Peter can 
afford to spare ourselves and him the reproach of cynicism 
and satire. Charity is the highest of duties to self as w r ell as 
to others. Neither the unfortunate nor the guilty, but we 
ourselves are the largest gainers in exercising this most 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 45 


blessed of virtues. It is the noblest culture we can give to 
judgment. Never limited to the sphere of reason, it embraces 
the imagination and the sentiments, draws into its circle of 
warmth all the affections, vivifies with heavenly influence the 
humblest office of sensibility, and makes the whole nature 
partake of the divine compassionateness. We are “ dust ” 
and we feel this most rightly when we recognize the “ dust ” 
of others. Peter fell in a very human way. Self-righteousness, 
self-reliance, self-esteem, all the insidious shapes that the 
false self assumes, hurried him down into shame and grief. 
But he began to rally in an instant and this immediate 
recovery shows how intolerable was his alienation from the 
honest and vigorous and permanent self. It was the sunset of 
a high northern latitude—scarcely a twilight—and the speedy 
return of sunrise. 

There is much in this incident worthy of careful study. I 
am in a mood, at times, to view it in a physiological light. 
And, in this mood, it touches me deeply to think how much 
our state of body has to do with life’s probation. At the mo¬ 
ment of St. Peter’s trial, all the physiological conditions were 
against him, and that, too, in a combination not often capable 
of occurring. Allusion has been already made to this fact, so 
that I need not dwell upon the point further than to say, that 
the temptation found him as to physical circumstances in the 
least favorable attitude for manly resistance. To say nothing 
of charity, which is the divine safeguard of judgment, we 
cannot be just to St. Peter unless we take this into account. 
If it is sheer fatalism to deny or even question the full force 
of responsibility under such circumstances, it is a grievous 
error not to estimate their mitigating influence. Disordered 
sensation s, excited nerves, chilled blood, are very unfavorable 


46 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEK. 


things to forethought, courage, and wise energy of will, and 
these treacherous besetments pressed hard upon St. Peter 
when confronted by his accusers. Only a few hours before 
Christ had fully told him of his danger. But he was proof 
against warning. His temperament was such that apprehen¬ 
sion was impossible. Peril had to threaten his senses or it 
could not alarm him, and Christ had spoken not to his senses 
but to his soul. The sensitiveness of Banquo to temptation is 
finely brought out by Shakespeare when he represents him 
starting up from his dream and refusing to sleep again. Ex¬ 
hausted as his body is, needing rest after the excitement of 
battle and the appearance of the Weird Sisters, yet how 
tremulous his sensibility to the images painted on his brain! 

“ A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 

\ And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, 

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts 
That nature gives way to in repose!” 

And Banquo is fortified, so that when Macbeth hints at 
“ some words upon that business,” he is strong in virtue and 
meets Macbeth’s temptation, “ It shall make honor for you,”- 
with the reply: 

“ So I lose none 

In seeking to augment it, but still keep 
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, 

I shall be counselled.” 

And Milton, too, shows exquisite skill when Eve narrates 
to Adam her dream of the temptation and exclaims: 

“ But oh how glad I waked 
To find this but a dream.” 

And Adam answers: 

“ Which gives me hope 

That what in sleep thou dids’t abhor to dre am 
Waking thou never wilt consent to do.” 

But the temperament of St. Peter forbade this keen insight 
into premonitions of evil, and, in this instance, waited as his 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 47 


habit was, for evil to present itself before he gave a thought 
to its hazards. Strength of mood, the most uncertain of all 
reliances, he deemed to be strength of mind. The counter- 
terfeits of a will braced and nerved, that fugitive impulses so 
often assume, readily imposed themselves on his active fancy. 
Like the image that appeared to Nebuchadnezzar, his feet were 
of clay and St. Peter knew not how easily they would crumble. 

How very clear and definite the leading ideas of St. Peter’s 
character were in the minds of the four Evangelists, cannot 
fail to strike every reader of their narratives. They have 
exactly the same conception of the man. St. Mark and St. 
John show a deeper insight into his nature than St. Matthew 
and St. Luke. But the portraiture of the character is in per¬ 
fect harmony and the impression they make is invariably that 
of one whom they could not mistake and would not misrepre¬ 
sent. St. Mark’s graphic power of delineation does not exag¬ 
gerate a single incident or any aspect of an incident, while 
St. John’s tender attachment to his friend does not prevent 
him from telling the sad story of his fall. We have different 
Julius Caesars in biographies and histories, and certainly one 
would find it an extremely hard task to get a single Napoleon 
Bonaparte out of the biographies and histories professing to 
describe him. Not so with the sketches of St. Peter. They 
are marked by the same distinctive contour of the man, and 
the light and shadow fall on the same outstanding features. 
This striking fidelity is not a mere matter of art. Art it is in 
the highest conceivable sense of art. Beneath it, however, is 
an obvious spiritual law that shapes the art and gives a soul 
to its substance. Such a character as St. Peter s could never 
have been invented. No one could have imagined a friend¬ 
ship on his part toward Christ so spasmodic in outward action 


48 LESSONS FKOM THE LIFE OF ST. PFTER. 

and yet so inherently strong in the depths of its being. And 
we may rest assured likewise, that no one could have invented 
the look of Christ’s utter loneliness and sorrow when He turned 
his rebuking yet forgiving eye on the man who had been his 
boldest champion, the first to acknowledge his Divine Sonship, 
and now denying Him thrice in the hour when his enemies 
were triumphing over Him. 

But there is a broader view of this matter. Does it seem 
as if Christ had failed with St. Peter ? He has degraded him¬ 
self and given his Lord the keenest pang in that morning of 
anguish. Can we regard it as other than a humiliating defeat 
where we should have expected a most signal victory? On 
closer inspection, it appears in a light entirely different. It 
did not take Christ by surprise. It was the natural out¬ 
working of causes which He had foreseen and foretold. If so, 
it ought not to astonish us. Nor can it astonish us when we 
recall the scene at Caesarea Philippi. It is exactly in the line 
of St. Peter’s antecedents, and, furthermore, St. Peter him¬ 
self only represents one aspect of a state of thought and feeling 
then general if not indeed universal, viz: utter disappoint¬ 
ment in Christ as the Messiah they expected as the elect race 
of Jehovah. “Despised and rejected of men,” long before 
prophesied by Isaiah, finds its response in, “And they all 
forsook Him and fled,” The reverberations of a thunder¬ 
storm among the crags of the upper Alps are very unlike its 
echoes amidst the terraced vineyards of the lower ridges but 
it is all the roll of thunder. Pharisees and Sadducees are 
very different men from the disciples; the former hated and 
persecuted Christ unto death while the latter loved and revered 
Him ; but nevertheless they were alike in one thing—they 
were disappointed in Him as the National Messiah. Now, in 



LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 49 


St. Peter, this feeling of overwhelming disappointment as 
characteristic of Christ’s devoted friends has its extreme man¬ 
ifestation. It assumes in him its most painful and mortifying 
expression. A typical man all through his discipleship, 
speaking just what he thought, acting just as he felt, what 
more natural, than that he should be typical to the last? This 
event in St. Peter’s life, shocking as it was, took its place in 
the economy of Providence and was over-ruled for purposes of 
infinite good. In this as in all else, Christ trusted the future 
for His vindication. He knew that every, true man must die 
to be appreciated. He knew that more than any other man, 
He had to die to be understood even by His dearest friends. 
He knew that his own mother and brethren had false views 
concerning Him and that only the cross and the grave could 
rectify their errors. If, therefore, St. Peter passed under an 
eclipse—the brave man a coward, the truthful man a liar, the 
reverent man a blasphemer—it was only in keeping with the 
great darkness that overspread the land at the crucifixion— 
like it a strange gloom but like it soon to disappear. 


FOURTH ESSAY. 


Sorrow of the Disciples after Christ’s death—Uses of this Sorrow—The 
Dead Christ in the hands of the Sanhedrim—The Empty Sepulchre 
a Mystery to His Disciples but not to His Enemies—Manifestations 
of the Risen Christ—St. Peter on the Lake Shore—Typicalness of 
St. Peter’s Character and History—Slow Transition in obedience to 
Providential laws—Laws of Mind never set aside by Christianity— 
St. Peter as an Exponent of these Laws—Uses of a man like Him in 
the Gospel Narrative—Where he Failed and how he was Restored— 
Lessons of Sorrow—the Apostle now of the “ Man of Sorrows ”— 
Characteristics of the Interval of Forty Days—Summary of its 
Effects. 

On the morning of Christ’s resurrection, St. Peter comes 
again into view. At the cross of Calvary, at the burial in 
Joseph’s tomb, on the intervening Sabbath, we see nothing of 
him. Christ is in the grave and the shadows of that grave lie 
on the disciples and hide them from sight. This fact has 
its place in the history. The dead Christ is indeed dead to 
them, and they are hidden from us in the solitude of disap¬ 
pointment and grief. It was to be expected that such a state 
of things would ensue, and, doubtless, Providence over-ruled 
ft for a special purpose connected with the historical evidences 
of Christ’s resurrection and the personal experiences of the 
disciples. The corpse was virtually held as the property of the 
Sanhedrim, for it sealed the sepulchre and guarded it against 
human invasion. Meantime, sorrow was to have its chasten¬ 
ing season with the followers of Christ, even a hopeless sor- 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 51 


row. Without one earthly stay or support, bereft of all sym¬ 
pathy, they were to be left in the gloom of desolation. But, 
even then, the divine work was going on in their souls. It 
was a period, like all occasions of poignant suffering, sacred to 
memory ; and, as the promised Comforter was to “ bring all 
things” to their “remembrance,” they were left alone with 
the images of the past and taken through a discipline intro¬ 
ductory to the specific office of the Holy Ghost. He was to 
set their recollections in the vivid light of his Divine Presence. 
Such grief carries in itself the approaching joy and yet knows 
not the prophecy of its near happiness. Well it was, that the 
disciples were ignorant of the future ready then to dawn 
upon their vision. Such a future must needs have a very solid 
jmst as a foundation for its superstructure, and, in these days 
of bereavement, this preparatory work was progressing. Mem¬ 
ory is the first mirror Christ holds up before an awakened 
soul. 

Men, their own men, carried 4;he news of Christ’s resurrec¬ 
tion to the Sanhedrim. A woman, Mary Magdalene, bore to 
Peter and John the tidings that the grave of Christ was empty. 
“ They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we 
know not where they have laid Him.” The men representing 
the Sanhedrim witnessed the coincident miracles of the earth¬ 
quake, the descending angel of the Lord, and the removal of 
the stone from the door of the sepulchre. Over their pros¬ 
trate forms “ as dead men,” symbolic of a vanquished Sanhe¬ 
drim, Christ rose in unobserved majesty. To guard an empty 
tomb was useless. They had something wondrous to tell and 
they hastened to tell it. Christ’s enemies were allowed to 
have the first knowledge of His resurrection and to invent 
their explanation of the missing body. Then as now, Provi- 


52 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

dence gave every possible opportunity to the adversaries of 
Christianity. Only there was no M. Renan in those days* 
Ingenuity had not reached the inventive skill of “ inebriation ” 
and “ apparition,” but was content with a falsehood outright. 
Naturally enough, it occurred to them, that a vacant grave 
which they had sealed and made “sure,” had to be accounted 
for in deference to their position, and the more so, as this 
empty grave was a fact that no cue bad the haidibocd to denj. 
Mary, too, reported a vacant tomb. At this point, all the tes¬ 
timonies agree. Foes and friends have common ground, upon 
which they stand. If, henceforth, their views diverge widely, 
it is a help towards getting at the truth that one fact is beyond 
question, viz: the corpse of Christ has disapjieard. And be¬ 
cause of this fact, which nobody doubts, Mary is sorely troubled. 
She hastens to Peter and John with the information of the 
missing body and they run to the sepulchre. For once, the 
quick Peter is surpassed; John reaches the place first, and 
“ yet went he not in.” Peter arrives and makes bold to enter, 
sees the napkin and the linen clothes arranged in order and 
feels that though the inmate has gone, the sanctity of the 
grave has been honored in the mode of his departure. John 
then examined the interior of the sepulchre—“ saw and 
believed.” 

But that empty tomb soon ceased to engage the attention of 
solicitude and be a sad perplexity to thought. It was a mys¬ 
tery to Christ’s disciples—not to His enemies. For three days 
it had a history. It belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, it was 


* “ The shadow created by the delicate sensibility of Magdalene wanders still on the 
earth. * * * These first days were like a period of intense fever when the faithful 
mutually inebriated, and imposing upon each other by their mutual conceits, passed 
their'days in constant excitement and were lifted up wi.h the most exalted notions. 
The Apostler, by Earnest Renan, pages 61, 69 



LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEB. 53 


new, and in a garden near Calvery. Nicodemus and Joseph, 
men of wealth and position, members of the Sanhedrim, had 
participated in Christ’s burial. Near by, the faithful women 
watched the lonely entombment, neither ashamed nor afraid 
to testify their affection for Him, who had just been borne by 
unexpected hands from the cross. Then the sepulchre where 
Christ lay, had become yet more closely connected with the 
Sanhedrim by their zeal to “ make it sure.” They made the 
sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. But 
the prophetic “ third day ” came and it passed from under 
their keeping. A short interval followed, during which, it 
was the centre of intense anxiety to the disciples. Unseen by 
mortal eyes, Jesus had risen and silently departed. Mary 
came the second time to weep at the empty grave, and, with 
her tears, closes the history of its bewildering wonders. 
Over that forsaken tomb falls the last eulogy of devoted love 
and then she hears “Mary” from the lips of her risen Lord. 
The history extends through three days, but what a vast space it 
fills! Backward to Nazareth, Capernaum, Tabor; outward 
from Judea to the chief seats of Boman civilization; forward 
to the nations that A. D. 1882, welcome the festival of Easter; 
what a strange diffusive power that wonder has! Not many 
days hence, “ Jesus and the resureection,” the earliest 
formulary of Christianity, will be translated into the different 
languages of mankind. “There is no speech nor language 
where their voice is not heard.” A doctrine that goes at once 
into all languages is sure to find entrance into all hearts. 

Yet nothing connected with the resurrection is so singular 
as that Christ’s frequent and emphatic allusion to “the third 
day ” should have been forgotten by his friends and remem¬ 
bered by his enemies. Were the eyes of the disciples “ liolden 


54 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEE. 


that they should not know it?” Was memory struck with 
syncope? Scarcely; but nevertheless it is a noteworthy inci¬ 
dent. Grief paralyzed memory. And so far as the historical 
argument of Christ’s resurrection is concerned, it was fortu¬ 
nate that it did. Grief, such as that, would not be likely to 
steal the dead Christ from the tomb. Grief, such as that, 
would be in no mood to see an “ apparition ” of Christ. On 
the other hand the guilt of the Sanhedrim had not testified to 
its own enormity unless it had taken possession of his sepul¬ 
chre. And so it is—forgetfulness and recollection are both 
over-ruled by Providence to attest Christ’s resurrection. Had 
not the disciples forgotten “ the third day,” the historical 
proof would not have been in the striking form it now pre¬ 
sents. Forgetfulness has its evils but forgetfulness in itself is 
not an evil. “ Forgetting those things which are behind ” was 
with St. Paul a condition precedent to “ reaching forth 
unto those things which are before.” If we remembered 
a tenth part of what enters the mind, the brain would 
soon die of overtasking. Thence it happens, according 
to God’s law in the organ of thought, that thousands of sensa¬ 
tions never rise into consciousness; other thousands of impres¬ 
sions stay for a time and depart, making room foi others; 
other thousands do their work and sink out of sight; for the 
mind, like the body, must exhale as well as inhale, and like 
the body, have its millions of little pores, through which, its 
waste matter can escape. 

Of the manifestations Christ made during the Forty-Days, 
five occurred on resurrection-day. Only ten are recorded; the 
first day shared half of them; and “the third day” is again 
signalized. If the evidence was to be evidence to faith no less 
than to reason*—spiritual while historical—addressed to grief, 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 55 


startling to guilt—then, let it be concentrated. Mass the 
forces and decide the issue at once. Where so much 
depends on instant action, there must be no delay. Hith¬ 
erto, indeed, Christ has obeyed the laws of time and 
space; his movements from city to city have been gradual and 
successive; his demonstrations of power and wisdom have been 
amenable to time and He has been careful not to encourage 
sudden and excessive impressions. But all the circumstances 
are changed now. Sovereign over time and space, He acts 
conformably to his Semi-Glorified Humanity. “Hespake and 
it was done; He commanded and it stood fast.” And who 
needed this quick influence more than St. Peter? One of the 
five manifestations (first day) was to him. Previously to the 
appearance to him, the angel had said to the Galilean women: 
“ Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter;” and how much 
is couched in the two words, “and Peter!” No particulars 
of the appearance to St. Peter are given. “ The Lord is risen, 
indeed and hath appeared to Simon.” It is in advance of 
Christ’s manifestation to the disciples on Sunday night and is 
referred to by St. Luke and St. Paul. Luke, XXIV, 34. 1 
Cor., XY, 5. Doubtless, it was private and personal, and 
hence the silence as to details. In marked contrast with this, 
we have the scene on the Lake shore in Galilee as given by St. 
John in the last chapter of the Fourth Gospel. Among the 
subordinate figures in this great scene—the subject of one of 
Raphael’s finest cartoons (Pasce Oves Me^s ) SlV'Peter is the 
most prominent, the whole interest being concentrated on the 
Lord’s interview with him. The scene may be regarded as 
epitomizing the entire history of Peter, up to this time as a 
disciple and an Apostle. At every point, it touches the 
past. The associations of three years, so varied, so alternating 


56 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


in lights and shadows, and yet so coalescing in the direction of 
a supreme purpose, are here either implied or directly ex¬ 
pressed. Once more, the Galilean fisherman is before us—the 
last view we shall have of him on the waters with his boat and 
net. Once more, he repeats the old impetuosity, plunging 
into the waves when John said to him: “It is the Lord,” and 
eager to reach his side before the other disciples. John was 
content to know that it was He; Peter must demonstrate his 
gladness in advance of his six associates. The miracle, more¬ 
over, was similar to the early incident in our Lord’s career 
when Peter cried out: “Depart from me; for lam a sinful 
man, O Lord.” Here, too, this “ sinful man ” was to realize 
his sinfulness as never before, to see his moral state not under 
impulse and the confused interblendings of imagination and 
conscience, but to see it in the light of the crucified Christ, 
risen from the dead and lingering for a season on earth before 
ascending to the Throne of Glory. His temperament being 
kept in view, together with his circumstances and modes of 
training it is not difficult to conjecture, that the facts of more 
recent life had now assumed some degree of unity in his con¬ 
sciousness. Before Christ’s death, the “ sinful man ” had come 
to a painful knowledge of himself, “ Wept bitterly ” are, in his 
case, expressive words. Since the resurrection, Christ had 
appeared specially to him and we may imagine with what 
effect. The conclusion then is reasonable, that he was pre¬ 
pared for the occasion now under notice. 

Accordingly, we find, that when Christ singled him out from 
the other disciples and addressed to him the searching ques¬ 
tion: “ Lovest thou me more than these? ” Peter ispromptto 
reply: “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love Thee.” Again 
the Lord asks, dropping the words, “more than these,” 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 57 


“ Lovest thou me? ” and Peter makes the same reply as before. 
And for the third time, the Lord inquires: “ Lovest thou me? ” 
and then Peter “ was grieved ” and yet there was naught but a 
calm intensity in the answer: “ Lord, Thouknowest all things; 
Thou knowest that I love Thee.” Throughout it all, it was not 
the asserting “ I” of former days, such as “ I will lay down my 
life for thy sake,” but “ Thou knowest,” and finally the em¬ 
phatic apppeal: “Thou knowest all things.” The “sinful 
man” had come forth from the old world of self, from its exag¬ 
gerated estimate of fugitive impressions, and especially from 
its want of discrimination between sensations and affections 
and he has found the entrance into the world of true spirit¬ 
uality. The “ sinful man ” was now humble, fortified against 
himself, truthful to awakened instincts, and hence the stress 
on “ Thou knowest.” So long as Christ was Christ to the 
senses and the sense-mind, laboring with unceasing activity and 
skill to elevate his disciples above merely sensuous ideas of his 
character and work, laboring most of all to preserve them 
against the abuses of his manifestation in flesh and blood; so 
long as this discipline with its struggles and risks was going 
on, Peter stood forth as we have seen, a typical man who 
represented, in nearly every aspect, the transition from Juda- 
ism to Christianity. Only in this light, can we do him justice, 
and, assuredly, in no other can we treat him charitably. But 
why separate the two ? They are ultimately one, for what is 
charity but justice glorified? 

To see more clearly this typicalness of Peter’s character con¬ 
sider the age of the Redeemer, the state and circumstances of 
Judea, and the conditions, under which, his divine work began 
and progressed. Ancient civilizations, retaining certain local 
features, had been fused together in a massive Roman Empire. 


58 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

Politically, the races were a race, but in all else they continued 
races with their hereditary traits. Blood survived and it 
nourished memories, traditions and usages. Blood is the last 
thing that yields to military conquest. Palestine had fallen 
under the Roman yoke, and yet Judea and Galilee, though 
governed by representatives of Rome, remained Judea and 
Galilee. They clung to their ancestral life with an invinci¬ 
ble tenacity. In their humiliation and sorrow, Jerusalem was 
still the Holy City, her foundations stable with the strength 
of centuries, her sacred places guarded by the hosts of Jeho¬ 
vah. But the institutions of the land had lost their ancient 
virtue. The spirit of their Law had been sacrificed to the let¬ 
ter; and the exactions of a false expediency, stern in devotion 
to precedent and jealous of all independent thought, divided 
Pharisees and Sadducees into opposing sects without abridg¬ 
ing the tyranny of either party. Inasmuch as the rivalry of 
these sects grew out of theories concerning the Law rather 
than the Law itself, it could only happen that the religious 
feeling of the Jewish nation would assume, for the most part, 
a slavish devotion to external ceremonies. The idea of the 
Theocracy, once so potent, would degenerate into that of the 
Hierarchy. Priests would ignore their relations to God in 
superstitious influences over the people, rabbis take the place 
of prophets, and the whole system of revealed religion become, 
with rare exceptions, more like a human invention than a 
divine reality. Of necessity, therefore, whatever was best in 
Judaism would go over to the side of ambition and worldliness. 
The best, indeed, would form the closest alliance with the 
worst, since nothing can be worse than the abuse of the higher 
sentiments by the substitution of selfish prudence for con¬ 
science. 


LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEB. 59 


At one time in Christ’s Ministry, it was asked: “ Have any 
of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?” indica¬ 
ting the obsequiousness of the people in all matters of reli¬ 
gion. At another time, it is stated, that “ among the chief 
rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Phar¬ 
isees they did not confess Him lest they should be put out of 
the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the 
praise of God.” St. John, Chap. VII, 48. XII, 42, 43. Such 
facts show how the Theocracy had been overlaid by the Hier¬ 
archy and to what a fearful extent, this ecclesiastical despot¬ 
ism had reached. On the one side, the Sadducees represented 
the extreme of secularity in the religion of the Jews. On the 
other side, the Pharisees exerted a far greater popular influ¬ 
ence by the stress laid on the oral Law, by their position as 
teachers, and by their sentinel-like contact with the social and 
domestic interests of the masses. Apart from these rabid 
classes of partisans, were those—a small number—who like 
Simeon were “ just and devout, waiting for the consolation of 
Israel;” like Anna who “served God with fastings and 
prayers night and day;” like Nathanael, Israelites indeed, 
“ in whom was no guile.” Yet even these shared the current 
errors and prejudices of the times and were ill-prepared to ac¬ 
cept a Messiah, who was to suffer and die as the Lamb of God 
for the sins of the world. Not one of them saw, that the great 
question in Christ’s Ministry involved a radical change in their 
personal, social, and national views of religion. Nor was it 
possible, or, if possible, not desirable, for them to see this 
stupendous fact except gradually. The transition was long 
from their veneration for Abraham and Moses to a true ac¬ 
ceptance of Christ; from offerings of field and flock to indi¬ 
vidual consecration; and from symbolic atonements to the sac- 


60 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


rificial blood of the Son of God. And it was long because 
conducted in obedience to Providential Laws and by a suc¬ 
cession of illuminations, light expanding into further lighb 
till the consummation at Pentecost. God is All-Wise and never 
suspends the laws of the human mind. 

Keeping this in view, we have a fuller insight into St. Peter 
as a typical character. How the wisest and best men of th 3 
times of Christ thought; how the most advanced opinions 
were mixed with errors; how hard it was for honesty and 
truthfulness and reverence to fight themselves free from the 
bondage of the past; how small at any given period was the 
movement forward and how frequent the rebound; all these 
are very apparent in his career. Could there have been a more 
transparent nature chosen by the Lord to show the interior 
workings of his divine truth and spirit? Could one have 
been found, in whom, the inner soul was so capable of easy and 
thorough-going embodiment in an outward shape? Genu¬ 
inely dramatic is he not? Dramatic, I mean, in the sense, that 
his thoughts and feelings have facile passage to the nerves 
and thence into vigorous expression, physiological no less than 
oral. Nothing within him, nothing that concerned his natural 
way of looking at things, nothing that involved instinct, would 
be left behind in the recesses of mind, when he spoke and 
acted. It is not extravagant to claim, therefore, that he had 
every quality for a typical man. His intellect was not subtle, 
abstract, metaphysical. The understanding was robust, 
straightforward, practical. Imagination took its strength 
from impulse and had no independent force of activity. 
Whatever he saw, he saw vividly because he felt deeply. And 
the moral was akin to the intellectual, so that his nature, if 
arousedjin its electric current, had no stoppage from non-con¬ 
ductors. 


LESSONS FKOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEK. 61 


The uses of just such a man as St. Peter in the Gospel nar¬ 
rative are manifold and invaluable. For it is not enough to 
have Christ before the eye merely in Himself and as Him¬ 
self, but we need to have Him in His work and especially as 
His teaching and example present themselves in the disciples 
nearest in public and still nearer in private to his person. To 
see Him in others is a help to seeing Him in Himself. Peter 
is a synopsis of the first stage of the Gospel as to its effects on 
experience and character. Allowing for excess of individuality, 
he affords us a continuous and complete history of Christ’s 
agency in shaping a human soul into sympathy with Him¬ 
self. The whole of the transition period, beginning with the 
reformation under John the Baptist and progressing to Pen¬ 
tecost, is brought out in Peter. First of all, we have the Jew 
of John’s day, then the preliminary training for the Apostolate 
and that era in education (Sermon on the Mount,) which was 
to mark by a broad line the difference between the righteousness 
of the new Kingdom and “ the righteousness of the scribes and 
Pharisees;” next the life of Jesus in Galilee, where, amid scenes 
so familiar to Peter, the discourses and miracles attracted such 
general attention and made Peter’s house a centre of public in¬ 
terest; following that bright morning the darkening of the day, 
the retreat to Caesarea Philippi, the glory of the Transfiguration; 
and thence onward the Man of Sorrows watching with anxious 
tenderness how Peter, with his joyous and exuberant nature, 
would take the shadows that were to deepen till he lost sight 
of Christ in the darkness. How near Peter was to Him and 
how hopeful and forbearing He was towards His excitable 
friend! Just after the discourse at Capernaum, a discourse 
fraught with momentous consequences, He had said: “ Have 
I net chcsen you twelve and one of you is a devil?” but He 


62 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

gave no hint then that Peter should deny Him. St. John VI, 
70. It was Christ, unveiling Himself as the Man of Sorrows, 
that Peter had addressed in the words : “ Be it far from Thee, 
Lord.” It was Christ, the Man of Sorrows, unveiled, that Peter 
denied in the words: “ I know not the man.” At this point, the 
final transition from Judeism to Christianity set in, and pre¬ 
cisely here, Peter stumbled and fell. At no other point would he 
have stumbled and fallen. 

Bear in mind, then, that we have two distinct forms of de¬ 
velopment in the Gospel narrative. One is the development 
of doctrine as Jesus advanced in his career, the same transpa¬ 
rency being always before the disciples but the light increasing 
by which, each line and lineament appeared more clearly. It 
was ever the same Divine Teacher, and so far as His infinite 
claims were concerned, He was not more authoritative at the 
close of His Ministry than at its beginning. But He had that 
higher economic sense of truth as it related to human capacity 
in its power to receive and assimilate the mysteries of the 
Kingdom. The rule of this economic use of truth was formally 
stated when He declared: “ I have yet many things to say unto 
you, but ye cannot bear them now.” St. John XVI, 12. The 
other form of this development manifests itself in the charac¬ 
ter of His disciples, and pre-eminently as to its slowness and 
fluctuations in Peter. He, too, is a transparency that shows 
all the degrees of illumination. And when, at last, a heavy 
shadow falls upon that transparency, we feel assured it is not 
the former darkness before Peter knew the Lord Jesus but a 
cloud soon to vanish. It was the Man of Sorrows, I have 
said, that he denied, for one of his temperament could have 
had no severer trial than such a sorrow. It was to him a 
personal and national sorrow. It obliterated the memories and 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 63 


crushed the hopes of three years, and, for a time, left his heart 
without support from the past or the future, Observe now 
the adaptation of the Lord’s discipline to Peter’s special in¬ 
firmity, viz: his inability to bear disappointment and grief. 
On the Lake shore, He asks him three times, “ Lovest thou 
me? ” and enjoins it upon him to “Feed my lambs,” “Feed 
my sheep.” Then he adds: “ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
When thou wast young; thou girdest thyself, and walkedst 
whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thoushalt 
stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry 
thee whither thou wouldst not.” St. John XXI, 18. 

This was a prophecy of sorrow, but of sorrow in its blessed¬ 
ness. Peter, as he was in earlier days—the strong, free, self- 
impelled man—and St. Peter as he would be in distant years— 
subdued by chastenings and yielding to the seizure of enemies 
-—is delineated here in vivid contrast. “This spake He, sig¬ 
nifying by what death he should glorify God.” Imagine the 
effect on Peter of this disclosure of the future, its specific 
influence on his temperament, its tendency to reconcile him to 
hardship and suffering, its lessons of patience and calm endu¬ 
rance, and, most of all, its power to secure the heroism of a 
firm and consistent moderation. Far too much for his well-being 
he had been devoted to his idea of Christ, because it was his 
idea, and this had betrayed him into a habit of displaying his 
superiority to the other disciples. “ More than these ” was 
his besetment. “More than these” had undergone painful 
experiences in his walking on the water and in the sharp 
rebuke at Caesarea Philippi. “More than these” had had a 
severe defeat when Jesus said to Peter in the Garden : “ Put 
up thy sword into the sheath.” And “ more than these ’ 
had been brought home to his conscience this very morning 


64 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEK. 


in the words of Christ. Shall it indeed be “ more than 
these?” Yea; but in a very different sense from Peter’s 
selfish delight in prominence as Christ’s servant. Alone of the 
Apostles, the shadow of death was then laid upon his heart, 
and, henceforth, it was to be an abiding presence. “ More 
than these ” was he then! Step by step, the Man of Sorrows 
had been drawing him to Himself, and he, who had denied Him 
on His way to the cross of Calvary, could now appeal to Him as 
the Searcher of hearts and say: “ Thou knowest that I love 
Thee” as Christ crucified and risen. “ More than these!” 
Out of vanity and weakness Christ brings strength and glory. 

Thus ends the second stage in the development of Peter’s 
life as the Lord’s disciple and Apostle. 

Is there anything bearing a resemblance to this personal 
history in the annals of other religions? in the memoirs of the 
old Testament? Nay, is its counterpart found in the career of 
any one of Christ’s followers? Was there a man among the 
Twelve trained in this way subdued by exactly such humilia¬ 
tions and finally made victorious over his infirmities? Let it 
be remembered, that this man’s education under Christ covered 
an unusually broad ground. A most active, wilful, impas¬ 
sioned, temperament was to be regulated. Nerves, that had 
formed their habits amid the stormy freedom of winds and 
waves and had little sympathy with conventional life, had to 
be disciplined for the brain of a chieftain in a great religious 
movement, the greatest known in the records of mankind. 
Besides all this, the narrowness of his views and the depth of 
his prejudices, have to be considered. The relations of the 
mind to the body no less than the relations of the body to the 
mind, must be taken into account; out of the fisherman, the 
Galilean, the Jew, and that withal in an age when unrest and 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 65 


disquietude were ever liable to break forth in fanatical vio¬ 
lence, there was to come a man whose strength should have no 
alloy of vehemence, and whose wisdom, sobered by the sor¬ 
rows of the past, should be in beautiful harmony with the 
repose of majestic courage. Such a man stands before us on 
the shore of Tiberias, and, hereafter, we shall know him as 
“ The Rock.” 

At the close of the Forty Days intervening between 
Christ’s resurrection and ascension, the reader of the fourfold 
Gospel has an enlarged view of St. Peter. Indiscretions have 
ceased, blunders are over, any further lapses are very im¬ 
probable. Yet, so far as we know, he has seen the risen Lord 
but on a few occasions. Apparently, then, much work has been 
done within him in a little time. How is this? The clue is 
found, I apprehend, in the fact, that the Lord has been giving 
him a new discipline which has matured his former training. 
I have already alluded to the Law of Unconscious Develop¬ 
ment, and I beg to add here, that this form of growth had 
reached a period in St. Peter’s career, when, under proper 
conditions, it was capable of sudden and remarkable expan¬ 
sion. Those conditions were supplied by the Forty Days. 
During this period, Christ was no longer the Christ of Caper¬ 
naum, Bethany, and Jerusalem—no longer watched by spies 
and hunted by persecutors—no longer wearing the guise of a 
servant and veiling his glory before the eyes of friends. Nor 
was He exalted to the Throne of the Universe, principalities 
and powers subject to his sceptre. But He was in a midway 
state, one of Semi-Glorification, that was designed to bridge 
over the vast space lying between the world of his humiliation 
and the empire of his exaltation. And, therefore, He came and 
went, communed with the disciples, explained to them the 


66 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

Scriptures, and breathed into their souls the Holy Ghost, as 
He had never done before and as they were not prepared for 
until now. One may easily trace the changed circumstances 
of the risen Son of Man in the changed St. Peter. So far as 
similarity could exist, the correspondence was marked. It 
appeared in all St. Peter’s actions, in the advance of his self- 
control and peculiarly in his more habitual composure. It 
evinced itself in his intercourse with the disciples and espe¬ 
cially with St. John, to whom he was drawn in a closer fiiend- 
ship. One is struck with the influence that St. John hence¬ 
forth exerts over him. Everything, in fact, goes to show that 
St. Peter stands on the threshold of a new existence. His at¬ 
titude is expectant, and he is girding himself not as a mere 
soldier but as a commander of forces in the warfare clearly 
seen to be near at hand. 

This will occasion no surprise in any man who has studied 
the laws of the human mind and particularly the operations of 
the Holy Spirit through those laws. Great as our indebted¬ 
ness is to Metaphysicians anl mental Piiysialogisfc3, let us not 
dream, that they have compassed this vast subject. Experi¬ 
ence, profound Christian experience, teaches much relating to 
the workings of the mind under its laws, of which, their sys¬ 
tems know nothing. One of the transcendant merits of the 
New Testament is, that it throws a light on the hidden recesses 
of thought and feeling, on the realm beneath the intellect of 
sensuousness, where the instincts of reason, conscience and 
sensibility, interacton one another. In these Forty,Days, we 
see a sudden revivification of St. Peter, all his energies vi¬ 
talized, and yet subdued to a method hitherto not experienced, 
because impossible of experience. For nearly three years, 
Christ, his Teacher, had been making impressions on his mem- 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 67 


ory which he could not understand. It was inlaid with hiero¬ 
glyphs. As time went on, the mysteries increased. The 
hieroglyphs multiplied but no key to the interpretation was 
given. After the resurrection, Christ supplied the key. The 
past was now comprehended. It became a living part of him¬ 
self. If it had failed him in the hour when it was summoned 
to the test, it could never fail him again. Conscience had the 
aid of an enlightened memory and this is one source of power 
in conscience. Let us not lose the lesson; memory may simply 
be an intellectual faculty; it becomes much more when it en¬ 
ters as a constituent into character. 

Look, finally, at the circumstances surrounding St. Peter in 
this interval of holy repose. Here, indeed, was he to have his 
culture in serenity. No excited crowds are here; no multi¬ 
tudes thronging the Lord Jesus; no need for a desert place 
where they might rest. The plaintive beseechings of parents 
for their afflicted children, the wail of lepers, the shrill cry of 
the demoniac, are unheard. The air holds the calm of heaven. 
Even the beauty of Galilee, which has so long served as a 
background for Christ’s parables and miracles, is shut out from 
view. Grassy hills and turreted mountains, terraces where 
vines festooned the rocks, Carmel and Hermon in the distance 
bounding at once the landscape and the firmament, orchards of 
olives and oranges, flowers of every hue, almond 
blossoms and oleanders, all these that formed “ a highland 
paradise” or plains like Sharon of verdant loveliness, are now 
kept out of sight. Only the risen Christ fills the scene. The 
background is immensity and the angels are hovering near 
with the anthem on their lips: “Lift up your heads, O ye 
gates; and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors; and the King of 
Glory shall come in.” Can we estimate the effect of all this on 


68 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


a mind like St. Peter’s? Looking on one from the dead, 
hearing his voice, watching his demeanor, identifying and con¬ 
trasting the risen Lord with Jesus of Nazareth; who can meas¬ 
ure the influence? And in it all, his personal consciousness 
so intensified that he can identify and contrast the present self 
with the past self, and, in some degree, realize the future, 
before the portals of which, he is now standing close by the 
side of Christ. 

When we compare St. Peter at the close of Christ’s posthu¬ 
mous Ministry during Forty days with St. Peter at the close 
of Christ’s former Ministry, we are struck most forcibly not 
by the mere fact of contrast but by the peculiar qualities that 
difference one from the other. The growth appears in certain 
attributes of mind with which we have become familiar, such 
as decision of purpose, promptitude of action, magnanimity of 
feeling, these indicating growth proper, i. e., an advance in 
their largeness of scope and regulated energy. This, however, 
does not fully cover the ground of comparison. New virtues 
exhibit their presence. There is a quietness, a reticence, a 
a spiritual insight, not discerned before. Instinctive mind is 
very obvious in him but very unlike earlier instinctiveness. 
Instincts seem to lie as layers in the soul, one beneath the 
other; and as in sinking a deeper shaft in the earth, we pene¬ 
trate various strata with their specific properties, so as truth¬ 
fulness of life works down into a man’s being, we find a soil 
below quite dissimilar to that on the surface. And this is 
development in distinction from growth which we recognize 
in St. Peter as the effect of the Forty Days. Growth and 
development have gone on together; and how beautifully this 
is symbolized to the senses! A similar order obtains in the 
material world. Spring expands into Summer, Summer into 


LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 69 


Autumn, each season meantime adhering to its own character. 
But to what are the simultaneous growth and development in 
St. Peter due? Obviously to the risen Christ and his methods; 
the change in Him and in them as modes of influence, and 
their reciprocal adaptiveness to act on the disciples. What a 
reality then He must have been! 

Education in the art of thinking, culture in the habits of 
emotion and sentiment, intense realizations of truths till of 
late not apprehended at all, vivid grasp of faculties not previ¬ 
ously used, spiritual inspirations; all these results are brought 
about by Christ’s resurrection. Is not this the same Christ? 
Aye; but in “ A spiritual body,” the laws and conditions of 
existence entirely changed, Christ in a corporeity very unlike 
that of “ Jesus of Nazareth ” and yet known in it as of old and 
felt through it more powerfully than ever before. Only a 
word— Mary —and the Magdalene springs to his feet. Only 
the “ all hail ” and the Galilean women worship Him. Only 
—“ Reach hither ’’—and St. Thomas, the heroic doubter, 
who held out against evidence till he was probably the solitary 
unbeliever in Christ’s resurrection in Jerusalem—only “ reach 
hither ’’—and he exclaims: “ My Lord and my God!” And 
in the grace said at the evening meal in Emmaus—only in the 
blessing and breaking of bread—the stranger is the risen 
Lord. And yonder on the shore of Tiberias, the dim haze of 
the morning flashes in noontide on the eje of St. John who 
whispers to St. Peter: “ It is the Lord!” Simplest of proofs 
that He was the same Christ; no demand on reasoning; no 
circuitous path to judgment; the logic clear and vividly as¬ 
suring; certainty instantaneous and complete; oh, if the little 
children that He once took in His arms had been brought 
back to His bosom, they would have smiled their remembrance 


70 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

of Him as the One who had said: “ Of such is the Kingdom 
of Heaven.” 

A man like St. Peter, sensitive in a remarkable degree to 
physical impressions, must have been singularly affected by 
the “ SPIRITUAL BODY ” of the Lord Jesus. Gliding into the 
presence of the disciples without notice, departing with no 
more formality than it came, none knowing where it abode, 
none understanding its habits and modes of life, doing nothing 
as an ordinary man, St. Peter must have been profoundly 
conscious of the power of Christ over this body. The marvel 
now was Christ the Son of Man. Would not this remind him 
of Christ’s walking on the water and still more of the Trans¬ 
figuration? Aud would he not be further reminded of Christ’s 
interest in the human body as evinced by His miracles? Juda¬ 
ism had laid great stress on the human body. The language 
in which its truths were conveyed to the mind was mainly a 
physiological language. Disease was a sign of sin; health and 
bodily purity were types of holiness. But Christ’s miracles, 
wrought nearly always in behalf of the body, had not only 
given to miracles themselves an aspect entirely new, but they 
were virtually a revelation of Divine Providence, as to the 
connection between the welfare of the human body and the 
well-being of the human soul. And this lesson, so often 
taught by Christ, had culminated in His own Semi-Glorified 
Body. In that group of disciples, now so intent on learning 
whatever Christ had to teach, who would be more impressed 
than St. Peter by the wonder of the Divine form appearing, 
vanishing, re-appearing, now disguised as a gardener, then as 
a traveling stranger, so spiritual as to be taken for a ghost, so 
palpable as to eat in their presence ? What he most needed 
was to get control over his body. Despite of his training, he was 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 71 


little else at Christ’s death than an ungoverned creature, more of 
a creature than a man, his nervous impulses swaying him hither 
and thither, and his lack of self-rule obvious on all occasions. 
He was greatly deficient in the religion of the body. The 
grace of God teaching him that the body was “ the temple 
of the Holy Ghost,” was the urgent lesson for his untamed 
nature. Tiberias and Galilee had to be driven out of him, 
and the wild fisherman, bred among wind and waves, was to 
be subdued into the gentle shepherd who could feed Christ’s 
sheep and carry the lambs of the fold in his bosom. Such 
extraordinary physical conditions as environed him during 
the Forty Days would have no power in themselves to change 
his vehement disposition. But they would have immense 
power to put him in an attitude most propitious to improve¬ 
ment and to act as auxiliaries to higher agencies, and this 
was precisely the effect produced. 

A beautiful season it was—that period of the Forty Days. 
Men had to witness what Humanity was in Christ Jesus. They 
had seen it veil the glory of his Godhead, and, what was also 
mysterious, they had seen it veiling its own glory. Poverty, 
homelessness, sorrow, present the Human disguised and ob¬ 
scured. “ There is no beauty that we should desire Him.” 
All this was over now; Humanity had entered on its glorifica¬ 
tion. 

A beautiful season indeed—that new Sabbath of Forty days. 
There was much of Heaven then upon earth. “ And God saw 
that it was good.” 


FIFTH ESSAY. 


Pentecost—Christ’s Previous Training of His Disciples—Past and Pres¬ 
ent combine in the offices of the Holy Ghost—New questions Arise 
—Apostles on the arena of Discussion—Issue between Judaism in 
the Hierarchy and Christianity in the Church—Prominence of- the 
Sadducees—St. Pefer’s relation to them as the Preacher of the 
Resurrection—His Qualities as a Leader—Changes in the Man 
How he Confronts the Sanhedrim and Senate—Decline of Sadducean 
Power—St. Peter the Agent in this work—His signal Success—Re¬ 
flections on his career at this time—Representative of the Dispen¬ 
sation of the Holy Ghost—Christ’s Glorified Humanity acting 
through St. Peter—Expediency of Christ’s Invisibility. 

Passing from the last chapter of St. John’s Gospel to the 
' Acts of the Apostles, we find ourselves in the midst of new 
scenes, surrounded by new circumstances and occupied with 
new thoughts. Christ has ascended to Heaven and the Apostles 
are left alone. What shall be the effect? What turn shall the 
affairs of the new Kingdom now take, the King afar off, and 
the stars of infinite space between His throne and the earth, 
His footstool? Christ makes no experiments; and yet we, 
hemmed in by our narrow sphere and looking at things 
“ through the loopholes of retreat,” watch eagerly the move¬ 
ment under the novel aspects it assumes. Absent from their 
senses, can He be present, nevertheless, with a power of reve¬ 
lation on His part and a conscious recognition on their part 
which shall satisfy to the full the demands of certainty ? 

For three years, there were few waking hours when he was 
not the Visible Teacher and Friend. Accessibility was the 
predominant quality of his social character. Every one knew 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 73 


the ways to his heart and knew, too, that they were always 
open and clear. Alternating between intercourse with men 
and communion with the Father, His life had been a mani¬ 
festation of every attribute of Humanity while He was the 
“ Image of the Invisible God.” Then came an Intermediary 
Period, during which the senses had no access to Him except 
as He “ showed Himself,” visible one hour, invisible the 
next as it suited his purpose. A twofold education never at¬ 
tempted save in this instance, was thus given to the disciples, 
so that their senses were made cognizant of His Semi-Glorified 
Form and trained meanwhile for its departure. That work, 
so very unique, having been accomplished, “ a cloud received 
Him out of their sight,” and henceforth He is the Lord Invis- 
ble. How are they affected by His removal? Not two months 
ago when He died, they were scattered and overwhelmed, but 
now they return from Olivet “ with great joy” and “ continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication.” A prayer meeting 
is the first assemblage of believers, the prelude to the great 
epoch of the Church. Practical business is begun, Matthias 
made an Apostle, and then Pentecost fulfils Christ’s promise 
of the Holy Ghost. “ There came a sound from heaven as of a 
rushing mighty wind; ” the “ sound ” was not the Holy Ghost. 
“ Cloven tongues like as of fire sat upon each of them; ” the 
“ tongues ” were not the Holy Ghost.” These were signs and 
wonders, nothing more; the power of the Spirit was inward, 
a Shekinali kindled by the audible breath of Christ and re¬ 
flected in the fire-like tongues that quivered in the air but a 
Shekinah hidden from sight. 

The sense of personality in our souls is the centre and heart 
of our being. It is the man within the man, the avowed and 
imperative “ I,” which, whether speaking or silent, is forever 


74 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


asserting its consciousness of the responsibility and dignity of 
human nature. And to this consciousness, Pentecost brought 
its manifold gifts and virtues, the treasures of that inheri¬ 
tance for which the disciples had been preparing as “ heirs of 
God and joint-heirs with Christ.” Towards this blessed con¬ 
summation, the advance in Christ’s Ministry during its two 
stages—the preliminary and the posthumous—had been steady 
and uniform. Not a pause had occurred in the progress, not 
even in the three days of his final humiliation; and hence the 
Apostles were ready for the profound spiritual consciousness 
which was to witness to the world not simply a historical re¬ 
ligion but a religion of experience. Facts were to be seen in 
them as truths of a transforming personal power. These 
truths were to stand apart from all other truths, to have a 
majesty of their own, to create an experience distinctive of 
themselves, and to declare their living force as illuminating 
and sanctifying the Apostles. Three kinds of habits Christ 
had been formiug in them, viz: habits of intellectual activity, 
of truthful feeling, of wise and sympathetic communication; 
and these were sufficiently matured to co-ordinate their 
energies. The habits had been acquired slowly, for otherwise 
they could not have united and compacted their strength nor 
given assurance of permanency. While the events of Christ’s 
life were transpiring,, unity of thought and feeling was impos¬ 
sible. Dislocated and jarring impressions were unavoidable. 
Now, however, the order was apparent and the unitary influ¬ 
ence perfect. Events explained one another. It was a great 
hour for the Apostles when the Holy Ghost put them in full 
possession of themselves and of their past experience hitherto 
unused. It was a great hour too for the Church of the future. 

Standing among the scenes of Pentecost and reverting to 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 75 


Christ’s Ministry, we see the place occupied by the Sermon 
on the Mount, by the Parables, by the Teachings and Miracles 
located in Galilee and those peculiar to Judea, by the Last 
Discourse and Prayer; nor have we any difficulty in tracing 
the thread of unity in the midst of diversity. Not till we reach 
Pentecost, have we a full view of Sadducee and Pharisee, of 
their modes of thought, of the agencies acting to suspend their 
mutual jealousies and rivalries, and the ground on which they 
combined in falal hostility to Christ. At this same point, we 
get a broader insight into Christ’s former methods of training 
the Apostles. Taking Peter for an illustration, we can scarcely 
fail to notice, that all his weaknesses have one underlying de¬ 
fect, viz: the want of a true spiritual consciousness. Such 
questions as “ Lord, how eft shall my brother sin against 
me and I forgive him? till seven times?” and “We have 
forsaken all and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore?” 
indicate the struggle going on between the Jew and the Lord’s 
disciple, and the initial steps towards an enlightened con¬ 
sciousness. St. Matthew XYIII, 21; XIX, 27. The posthu¬ 
mous Ministry of Christ as to its mode of instruction and cul¬ 
ture brings us, as we have tried to show, nearer to Pentecost. 
We hear from His lips: “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” and we 
mark in Peter a specific discipline, personal to his memory 
and experience, and looking to a much higher state of spiritual 
consciousness. The great end has now been attained; Pente¬ 
cost has made good the promise of the Comforter; the oneness 
of this Comforter with Christ and his distinctness from Christ 
have had a signal manifestation; miracles have taken a form 
entirely new; gifts and graces have appeared in unexpected 
fullness of strength and beauty; and, in a far different sense 
from Peter’s wish on the Mount of Transfiguration, the “tab¬ 
ernacle of God ” was with men to depart no more forever. 


76 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEB. 

Just at this point a new question arises, viz: Can this man, 
St. Peter, represent in his character and office the Son of Man 
seated on the Throne of His Glory? Placed in a position that 
requires him to be the executive of the Unseen, how will he 
sustain himself in an attitude so novel and in relationships so 
singular? Around him are eleven Apostles, but as Apostles 
they have had no training in the direct exercise of their official 
functions, though ten of them have been under culture fob 
these functions. As it respects skill, forethought, religious 
statesmanship, they are all in the same category. What of 
their experience ? Beyond doubt, St. Peter lias had an indi¬ 
vidual experience very unlike the other Apostles in certain 
well-known particulars. But is it available for transfer from 
a life hitherto quite private to a life now almost entirely public? 
AVe know, that “ lowliness is young ambition’s ladder.” 
We know, that men in rising to high places often leave their 
virtues and wisdom behind them. We know, furthermore, 
that success in one sphere is no proof whatever of a man’s ade¬ 
quacy to responsibilities in a very different sphere. And we 
know, finally, that in the degree these spheres are remote from 
each other, to that extent is risk incurred, and that precisely 
under such circumstances, we realize “ the hazards of this 
untrod state.” If, now, we analyze the experience through 
which St. Peter has been led, I think, we must admit, that 
while it has been thoroughly personal, it has likewise been 
generic. It has been an experience, of the world’s heart as 
well as his own, and he has learned the secrets of humanity 
and particularly Jewish human nature, at the same time, he 
has been getting an insight into his Own being. Pentecost 
is the Providential no less than the spiritual sequel to such 
an experience. He has been profoundly educated in the sense 



LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEB. 77 


of truth as well as in the sense of truths ancl thus prepared for 
Pentecost. 

The controversy between the current Judaism and Christian¬ 
ity is-soon re-opened but in a way and by methods not before 
known. In the discussions between Christ on the one side and 
Pharisees and Sadducees on the other, ceremonial observances 
and long-cherished traditions, partisan beliefs and sect-pecu- 
liaraties, had engrossed attention. Some of these questions 
pass out of view, others fall into insignificance. So long as the 
issue between Christ and his enemies was pending, the Apos¬ 
tles took no direct part in the conflict. Now, however, they 
come into the foreground. The disciples are an organic body 
and the Apostles are their official representatives. Conscious 
of close fraternal ties, conscious of a still closer relationship to 
a risen and glorified Bedeemer, these men realize that they 
constitute the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they 
see also, that henceforth the struggle lies between Judaism in 
the Hierarchy and Christianity in the Church. Pentecost as a 
mere event had produced no outbreak of antagonism. St. 
Peter had spoken of the “ wicked hands,” by which, Christ 
had been “ crucified and slain,” but the only inquiry was: 
“Men and brethren, what shall we do?” “Three thousand 
souls ” were added to the Church, and as yet no movement 
towards a hostile demonstration. A lame man was healed at 
the Beautiful gate of the Temple and “ the people were filled 
with wonder and amazement.” Peter had said to the man: 
“ In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk,” 
and he had entered into the Temple, “ walking, and leaping, 
and praising God.” That day, Peter preached another ser¬ 
mon, and the substance of it was, that “through faith in his 
name,” the name of the “ Holy One and the Just,” the name of 


78 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

the “Prince of life,” whom they had “killed,” this lame man 
had been made “ strong ” and now stood in “ perfect sound¬ 
ness ” before them all. This aroused the Sadducees and led 
to the immediate imprisonment of Peter and John. The war¬ 
fare of violence on the part of Christ’s old enemies had now 
been resumed, and these same Sadducees, who had been most 
active in securing Christ’s death and had most at stake in his 
resurrection, are the leaders in persecuting the Apostles. 
Yet observe a significant fact—these Sadducees make no allu¬ 
sion to Christ’s teachings nor are his doctrines so much as 
hinted at. Only one thing is before their eyes— The Risen 
Christ! No other object could be seen; the splendor radiat¬ 
ing from His Glorified Form blinded them to all else and they 
felt “ how awful goodness is” to guilt. It is the Person, not 
what He did and taught, but simply the Person who excites 
their fear and foreboding. “This Man” engrosses their 
thoughts. And this effect was due to the single emphatic 
point in St. Peter’s pentecostal preaching, namely, the Per¬ 
sonalty of Christ as the Risen and Glorified Son of God. All 
the facts were condensed in this supreme fact: “Him hath 
God exalted.” 

Leaders, I have said, these Sadducees were. Leaders it 
became them to be. According to Josephus, the Sadducees 
believed that the soul died with the body, and St. Luke, 
(Acts XXIII, 8,) states that “the Sadducees say, there is no 
resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees con¬ 
fess both.” So far as mere power is involved, disbelief is to 
the lower nature what faith is to the higher nature. Disbelief, 
in rejecting the truths of Divine Revelation, allies itself with 
the sensual man, excites his passions, and brings the brutal 
propensities into its service. Fanaticism is determined far 



LESSONS FRDM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 79 


more by our disbelief than by our belief. Never what we love, 
always what we hate, is the secret of fanaticism^ and fanati¬ 
cism is the virus, not the venom of our nature. No wonder, 
therefore, that the Sadducees initiated the persecution of the 
Apostles, nor can we be surprised at the occasion that called 
forth their malignant activity. Here, in the miracle wrought 
upon the lame man, was a case to show that the resurrection 
of Christ as taught by St. Peter was a practical fact, the most 
practical of facts. Here, too, were undeniable proofs of pop¬ 
ular sympathy with Peter and the doctrine of the resurrection, 
the very doctrine above all others against which they were 
virulently arrayed. “Five thousand men” had become the 
supporters and defenders of this obnoxious doctrine. The pow¬ 
erful sect of the Sadducees, with its offices and emoluments, 
was threatened and it must needs put forth its might. So much 
then is clear: the first trial of strength will be between 
Christianity and Sadduceeism. Think of the time not long 
gone, when the high priest, Caiaphas, a Sadducee, went 
throngh the mockery of a trial and “ rent his clothes,” charging 
the Lord Jesus with “ blasphemy.” Think of the Sadduceean 
craftiness acting on Pilate in the Roman trial and the art they 
showed in trying to make Him a political offender. Think 
too of Herod, the Idumean Sadducee, who “with his men of 
war, set Him at naught, and mocked Him, and arrayed 
Him in a gorgeous robe.” Think, furthermore, of the 
watch they stationed at Christ’s grave and the falsehood 
invented concerning the missing body. Guilt like this could 
not slumber. No expedients were able to soothe its restless¬ 
ness, no sophistry had power to answer its awakened voice. 
And ho w these Sadducees are here in proud ascendancy over 
the Pharisees, little thinking that from this day, their author- 


80 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

ity was doomed to rapid extinction and they themselves as a 
sect destined to sink at no distant period out of Jewish history. 
In crucifying Christ, they have crushed themselves. Blood is 
inevitable vengeance and the vengeance of blood never stops 
short of utter destruction. 

A meeting of the Sanhedrim was called. Peter and John 
were arraigned and the question put to them: “ By what power, 
or by what name, have ye done this?” Peter made instant 
answer, that “ the good deed done to the impotent man” had 
been wrought in “the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,” 
whom they had crucified and God had raised from the dead. 
The “boldness of Peter and John” excited their wonder, the 
more so as they were “unlearned and ignorant men” i. e., not 
professionally educated. Nothing so strange had ever 
occurred; rude Galileans dared to confront an aristocratic 
Court whose power and prestige awed Jerusalem and the 
nation. Roman Procurators, armed with the empire of the 
world, had found it necessary to respect its rights and propi¬ 
tiate its favor. And now fishermen, who had but lately left 
their nets, were facing this Court and reminding its members 
of their guilt. Peter’s address was short but it had its effect. 
For the moment, persecution was stayed. The rulers con¬ 
fessed among themselves, that “ a notable miracle” had been 
done and so “ manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem” 
that “ we cannot deny it.” They were in no mood to do more 
than threaten. “ Speak henceforth to no man in this name,” 
language this which bore testimony unwittingly to the influ¬ 
ence of Christ’s name. How soon the ally of Beelzebub, the 
deceiver, the companion of thieves in his death; how soon had 
He, “despised and rejected of men,” risen from unwonted 
humiliation and scorn and contempt into an attitude of su¬ 
preme concern, aye, even of terror to these men! 



LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 81 


The anxiety on their part deepens. Peter and John could 
make no compromise. “Boldness” spoke without hesitancy: 
“ Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you 
more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the 
things which we have seen and heard.” And then they 
“ further threatened,” this timid policy being the only availa¬ 
ble resort, ‘ because of the people.” We see the contrast in 
the position of the Sadducees now and previously. The com¬ 
mon people had heard Christ gladly, and but for them, his 
career, according to human calculation, would have been 
speedily cut off. “ When they sought to lay hands on Him, 
they feared the multitude because they took Him for a 
Prophet.” Not until this breakwater had been thrown down, 
did the surge sweep over the land. At this time, however, 
the people as a protective force around the Apostles, came 
into prominence. “ Five thousand men ” are an argument for 
moderate measures, and the Sadducees are wise enough, in a 
sudden contingency, to take counsel of their fears. So then 
the breakwater has been rebuilt, the masonry is solid now, 
and there is one boulder from the Galilean hills, called by 
eminence, “ The Rock! ” On returning to their brethren, the 
Apostles were received with thanksgiving and prayer. Then 
was heard the first grand outburst of Christian emotion, the 
beginning of the voice of a “ great multitude” and of “ many 
waters ” and of “ mighty thunderings; ” “ Alleluia; for the Lord 
God omnipotent reigneth.” Often had Israel chanted in the 
second Psalm, her memories of David’s triumph over his ene¬ 
mies and theirs, and now these same strains of exultation were 
uttered with a new and loftier meaning. The prayer was for 
“boldness” in speaking the word;.the answer came: “the 
place was shaken where they were assembled together; and 


82 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEE. 

they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the 
word of God with boldness.” Acts, Chap. IV. “Boldness” 
had already startled the guilty Sadducees, and vindicated its 
heroic quality in that critical hour. And the Holy Ghost was 
poured out afresh to quicken and enlarge this “ boldness,” so 
that they “ spake the word of God with boldness.” One 
recalls a saying of Cromwell’s day;” Courages are the best 
beams of the Almighty.” 

Another scene opens. “ The multitude of them that be¬ 
lieved * * had all things common.” Evidently this was due 
not to any divine command but to a warm impulse that grew 
out of the sense of a community-character and now sought to 
organize itself in a community-life. On the one hand, it was 
not the Jewish interest in the poor. On the other hand, it was 
far removed from “communism.” It was an outgush of 
Christian sentiment, due to the pressure of the times on the 
feeling, that believers were an organic body in themselves and 
dependent on reciprocal sympathies. Had the high and gen¬ 
erous impulsiveness of Peter’s nature imparted itself uncon¬ 
sciously to the disciples ? Once he had said: “We have left 
all and followed Thee.” Was the freshness, the fervid zeal, 
of his younger days, mirrored to his eye in this impas¬ 
sioned philanthropy? We know not; but it is clear, that 
Peter watched the movement with much care and solicitude. 
No one knew as he knew the dangers of imaginative sentiment^ 
the deceptions of unguarded impulse, the risks of hasty emo¬ 
tions even when good in themselves. Never was his experi¬ 
ence more valuable nor his special training by the Lord Jesus 
more obviously beneficial than just at this singular conjunc¬ 
ture in the affairs of the Church. He it was, who was led by 
the Spirit to penetrate the lying ambition of Ana 1 as and 


LESSONS EBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEB. SB 

Sapphira and expose it to the Church. The judgment of God 
descended upon them. Death had come into the Church, 
death as the penalty of self-glorification in a work of seeming 
benevolence. To add to its terrible impressiveness, it was 
husband and wife who were one in guilt and one in punish¬ 
ment. “ Great'fear came upon all the Church and upon as 
many as heard these things.” Will the “ great fear ” extend 
to the Sadducees? Or, are they advancing to the fatality of 
judicial blindness? We shall see presently, but, meanwhile, 
Peter appears in greater prominence. The sick were brought 
into the streets on beds and couches, “ that at the least the 
shadow of Peter passing by might over-shadow some of them.” 

“ Shadow and Overshadow; ” the streets of the Holy City a 
vast hospital, crowds of eager friends close about the suffer¬ 
ers, the news extending over the country and “ multitude out 
of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and 
them which were vexed with unclean spirits,” none neglected, 
none disappointed; “ they were healed every one; ” what an 
unlooked for expansion in the philanthropic workings of 
Christianity. It is the counterpart of Christ in Galilee. 
The bodies of men as well as their souls were precious to the 
risen Christ, and his religion was applying its tender benifi- 
cence to the couches of disease and wretchedness. For a 
season, the Shadow of Death retreated before the shadow of 
Peter; and Jerusalem, weary under the burden of manifold 
woes, rested from her processions to the gfave and smiled 
beneath her lightened griefs. Only to his shadow was this 
marvelous glory given. Was there danger lest this sudden 
influx of earthly blessings should be perverted? Ananias and 
Sapphira were fresh in recollection. Judgment and Mercy 
walked hand in hand. Could such an intense state of things 


84 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEK. 

continue without interruption? Clearly not, since interests 
so opposite were at stake. One might say, that there were at 
this moment two Jerusalems, one represented by Caiaphas and 
the Sadducees, the Pharisees being temporarily inactive, and 
the other by Peter and the Apostles. Caiaphas was secular, 
crafty, and bent on keeping his party in the ascendancy it had 
recently gained. Peter as the chief Apostle was as resolutely 
calm as he was inflexibly firm. The dignified candor of his 
late statement to the Sanhedrim, that he could not “ but speak 
the things ” which he had heard and seen, had been nobly 
sustained. Not only had he continued preaching and working 
but his sphere of influence had miraculously widened and the 
“ boldness ” had received a fresh baptism from on high. A 
collision was inevitable between Jerusalem the old and Jeru¬ 
salem the new. It came on immediately. For a time, it 
changed the aspect of affairs, Gamaliel, a conservative man # 
among the Pharisees, recommending a tentative policy which 
was adopted. 

“Filled with indignation” (Acts Y, 17, 18,) Caiaphas and 
his coadjutors “laid their hands on the Apostles and put 
them in the common prison.” They were liberated by “ the 
angel of the Lord” and commanded to continue their preach¬ 
ing. Sanhedrim and Senate met the next morning. Officers 
were sent for the prisoners, but they were gone, and the au¬ 
thorities “ doubted of them wliereunto this would grow.” 
Hearing that the Apostles were teaching in the Temple, they 
had them brought “without violence, for they feared the 
people, lest they should have been stoned.” Jerusalem the 
new is making itself felt in Jerusalem the old. The vindic¬ 
tive Caiaphas finds caution necessary in the formidable pres¬ 
ence of Peter’s popular leadership. Noticeable too is the be- 



LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 85 


trayal of his fears when he says: “ Ye have filled Jerusalem 
with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon 
us.” Contempt is sometimes the only subterfuge for appre¬ 
hension. Contempt speaks of Christ as “this man,” while 
apprehension emphasizes the “ blood.” Nor is the “ blood ” 
forgotten by Peter when he tells the Sanhedrim of Jesus, 
“ whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.” It was too much for 
the Sadducees and “they were cut to the heart and took 
counsel to stay them.” If, in that hour, when “indignation” 
had swelled into rage, rage into revenge, revenge into blood¬ 
thirstiness, there had been no party to the issue except the 
Sadducees under the lead of Caiaphas, we can hardly doubt, 
that the Apostles would have been murdered. Gamaliel advo¬ 
cated a provisional tolerance. Despite, however, of the San¬ 
hedrim’s acceptance of his wait-and-see argument, the Apostles 
were scourged. Again they were commanded “ not to speak 
in the name of Jesus; ” and again “daily in the Temple, and in 
every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus 
Christ.” 

At this juncture, we are in a position to gain a larger view 
of St. Peter both as to his character and work. Is this cool, 
sagacious man the same as in former days? It is well that 
we have had his history in its several eras, or, perchance, our 
credulity rather than our rational confidence would be appealed 
to for its favorable suffrage. Instead of hasty inconsiderate¬ 
ness, a most thoughtful caution is his dominant quality. 
Nothing wild or erratic is seen. The man who essayed to 
w r alk upon the waiters and drew his sword in Gethsemane, has 
quiet nerves and breathes deeply. By some wonderful power, 
unknown to Physiology in its own domain as a science, his 
body has ceased to invade his mind with its tumultuous energy. 


86 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


Not a nerve in him is refractory. “ Lead ns not into tempta¬ 
tion ” has taken effect in his whole nervous system. Like a 
well-drilled company of soldiers, these nerves once so disor¬ 
derly heed the voice of command even in a whispered Yea or 
Nay. No hot blood rushes to the brain. Where his weakness 
was formerly most apparent in appropriating every occurrence 
to self-regarding sensibilities, he shows an independence no^ 
only of selfish but of personal interests. Had he been dis¬ 
posed to indulge in the least resentment—a quality always 
present in a high-strung nature—tliere were ample opportuni¬ 
ties for its exercise. He had been chaiged, together w'itli the 
disciples, of stealing the corpse of Christ from the sepulchre; 
no allusion is made to the lying insult. Alarmed at the ven¬ 
geance hanging over their heads, the Sanhedrim confessed 
their fears of “ this man’s blood,” but Peter said nothing to 
aggravate their dread. Healing the sick and helping the 
needy, brightening the very streets of Jerusalem by the full¬ 
ness of philanthropic service, he had been treated as a common 
felon, thrown twice into prison, once had been beaten and 
yet he only rejoices that he is “ counted worthy to suffer 
shame for his name.” Two months since, he had trembled 
before a servant maid in the high priest’s palace, but now his 
“ boldness ” excites the wonder of the high priest himself. 
What hath God wrought! Three years ago, an obscure fisher¬ 
man in provincial Galilee and here he stands in the Holy City, 
the metropolis of the religious world, and he is the acknowl¬ 
edged champion of a movement that bewilders and dismays its 
stoutest enemies. 

Yet Peter is not the antagonist of these enemies. The 
weapons of his warfare are not carnal, not even Jewish, not 
such as David and Moses would have used for the defence 


LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEE. 87 

of their faith. A sense of nationality, a feeling of tenderness 
towards his race, a veneration for the Temple whither he 
resorts daily and in whose shadow he preaches the Gospel of 
Christ risen, are tokens of a naturalness that comports beauti¬ 
fully with Christianity while getting a foothold [in the impe¬ 
rial centre of Jewish life. It is the “ God of our fathers,” says 
he to Sanhedrim and Senate, who “ raised up Jesus whom ye 
slew and hanged on a tree.” Although conspicuous for 
“ boldness,” he is strikingly conservative. “Beginning at 
Jerusalem,” were his Lord’s words and he is foremost among 
the beginners in sympathy with the place and its ancient 
associations. “The keys of the kingdom of heaven” had 
been used in this city in first opening the door of the 
Church and not long hence they will admit by Peter’s hand 
the Gentiles to a participation in the blessings of the new 
Dispensation. Meantime, however, a most important work 
has to be accomplished in the Holy City. This is the spot, 
where the rulers have taken counsel together against the Lord 
and against His Anointed; where Sadducee and Pharisee 
have joined hands; where Pilate and Herod have made friends; 
and here the fraternity of an iniquitous diplomacy has achieved 
its success. Here, too, the Lord has declared and enacted the 
decree: “ Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” 
Above all other locations on earth, this is the place to test the 
ressurrection of Christ, to test it as a historical fact, to prove 
its virtue as a doctrinal truth, to ascertain its precise value as 
an inspiring sentiment, and to learn its sublime reality as an 
organizing and community-force in a large body of believers. 
Much of this work has now been done. The history of con¬ 
centration has well nigh ended and the history of diffusion is 
about to begin. “ The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared 


88 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


to Simon.” And now the words take on a new emphasis: 
“ The Lord is risen,” and the “ indeed ” has a fresh meaning, 
for He has appeared in Simon by the power of the Spirit and 
in the presence of the Sanhedrim. Bring “ all the Senate of 
the children of Israel ” to witness the proceedings of the great 
Testing-Day of the historical, moral, national, and spiritual 
truth of Christ’s resurrection. The outcome of it is: “Re¬ 
frain from these men and let them alone,” the moderation 
and prudence of a Pharisee adopted by Sadducees. One vast 
result has been attained, viz: the despotic sway of the most 
unprincipled and cruel party among the Jews has been effect¬ 
ually broken. Never again can it be what it has been—never 
so insolent, so overbearing, so blood-thirsty. The special work 
of Peter, in the outset of his Apostolic career, was to be a 
leader in breaking down this formidable power, and it is not 
extravagant to say that he is entitled to the praise of duty 
nobly done. “Rock” and “ Keys,” once prophetic symbols, 
are now seen as historic realities. 

In this essay, the special interest attached to St. Peter is 
that of the first representative man of the Spirit’s Dispensa¬ 
tion. What this involved as to the responsibilities and duties 
laid upon him, we are scarcely competent to recognize, our 
times and circumstances being so different from his, and, es¬ 
pecially, our modes of thought. In our day, almost every¬ 
thing is spiritualized in the sense that an element is ac¬ 
knowledged as belonging to human life higher than the senses 
and purer than the ordinary code of morality. Our tempta¬ 
tions and sins show that we are conscious of a spiritual au¬ 
thority in the world which presses upon us even when most 
resisted. Eighteen centuries ago, this was far from being the 
fact. The contrast between life then and now is not to be 



LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 89 


measured by the outward but by the inward, and, hence, 
when I speak of St. Peter as the representative man of the 
Holy Spirit’s Dispensation, I mean to individualize his prom¬ 
inence in those personal and official qualities which distin¬ 
guished him both as a Christian and Apostle. Christ had 
ascended to Heaven. Humanity was crowned in Him as the 
Head of principality and power. It was not then humanity 
but Divine Humanity, Son of Man and Son of God, that St. 
Peter was to embody and set forth. And he had this to do 
when Roman civilization was at its worst stage under the later 
Caesars and when Judaism had degenerated well nigh to its 
lowest point. 

Christ wa» enthroned in glory, and He and the glory were 
invisible. Could St. Peter witness before men to this exalted 
Humanity? If so, how? His method shows from the outset 
the great popular leader. First of all, the Apostolic vacancy 
was filled by the election of Matthias, the act of the Church as 
a body now invested with organic prerogatives. Pentecost 
soon followed and Peter is the voice of the occasion, the in¬ 
terpreter of its mysterious signs, the expounder of its mar¬ 
velous intent. The purpose of Christ in giving this proof of 
his exaltation is stated and enforced, and the first sermon he 
preaches brings as a trophy to his Lord “ about three thou¬ 
sand souls.” Public speaking is a new thing with him; find 
yet the clear and vigorous statement, the rapidly condensed 
facts of history, the recent and the old brought compactly to¬ 
gether to illustrate the event just transpired, the earnest and 
incisive style, and above all the union in his discourse of ap¬ 
peals to the truth of conscience and the sensibilities of the 
heart, show very strikingly what a height of power he has 
suddenly reached. Plainly, then, he is neither the man nor 



90 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


Apostle, we have seen hitherto in process of formation, but the 
man and Apostle formed, and this ideal of excellence has been 
attained in three years; most of it, indeed, within two months. 
Let it be remembered, however, that since his resurrection, 
Christ has not been under the law of time. Conquests over 
time are the last product of science and art in civilization. 
Only of late years, have we accomplished anything note¬ 
worthy in this direction. But we see in St. Peter’s rapid 
development that the risen Christ is victorious over time and 
its circumstances. Not a law of mind has been violated, not 
the least strain has been put on any faculty, not a habit of his 
nerves has been violently wrenched away, and yet this man 
who was yesterday too obscure for the scorn of Pharisees and 
Sadducees is now a colossal terror of wisdom, courage and 
energy. 

Glorified Humanity! How it fills him with its descending 
greatness, and the more the volume the calmer the soul! The 
truths of Christianity that have risen one by one into view, 
now cover the whole field of vision. They have become mat¬ 
ters of conscious experience, life-creating forces, and they are 
mighty over others not merely because they are divine but be¬ 
cause while divine they operate through human souls. “ Thou 
knowest ” is his panoply of strength. His consciousness is the 
reflex of Omniscience. What an amplitude he has! Represent 
the Glorified Humanity of the Son of Mary? Yea; in his 
touching sympathy with the afflicted, for his first recorded 
miracle is wrought on a poor man lame from birth and living 
by charity. “ Leaving us an example,” wrote he long after¬ 
wards but he will “ follow his steps ” in every miraculous act, 
and the Lord Jesus will find him so honest and unselfish in 
his work, that He will honor even his “ Shadow ” and give it a 
healing omnipotence. 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 91 

Glorified Humanity! Yea; in all the offices of St. Peter’s 
vicarious duties. Threatened, imprisoned, scourged, he is 
vicarious; in sympathy with his crushed nation, a vicarious 
patriot; in fellow-feeling with the distressed, whose sorrows 
he takes upon himself, a vicarious sufferer; in magnanimity 
towards his enemies, a vicarious saint; and in the amount and 
quality of Apostolic work, a vicarious Apostle. Vicarious suf¬ 
fering is the filial limit of our capacity to “ follow his steps,” 
and St. Peter was one of the earliest illustrious instances of its 
supreme excellence. 

“Expedient for you that I go away;” sad words then, 
joyous words now. “ Even so, Lord Jesus; ” expedient to lay 
off the form of a servant and put on the Form of Glorified 
Humanity. The absence was compensated; the Invisible 
became the Visible again; first appearing in man’s flesh 
and blood, now in man’s soul and spirit; the cycle has 
been completed. 

There are times when I think of Christ as the pro- 
foundest, far the profoundest Intellectual Philosopher that 
ever lived. He understood the laws of mind, saw 
into their modes of working as no man had ever seen, 
found out motive-forces and quickening influences never 
before dreamed of, and, most of all imparted his all- 
abounding vitality to these laws by exciting each men¬ 
tal faculty to new methods of activity. Each mental 
faculty received a distinct and peculiar treatment. By 
means of miracles and the brief addresses accompanying 
them, He educated the sense-intellect in a way not attempted 
till then. By means of parables, He taught the imagination 
to discover moral beauty in material objects. By means of 
didatic instruction, he gave reason a keener insight into the 


92 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


fundamentals of just thinking. If He formed a new conscience 
in man, He awakened within him a new consciousness. “ In 
Him was life; and the life was the light of men/’ Did the 
“ life” take three forms—first as Jesus of Nazareth, then as 
the risen Christ, finally as the God-Man of the Universe? So 
did the “ light.” For three years, its illuminations corres¬ 
ponded with the conditions of flesh and blood existence; it was 
light in its beginning and early increase. Then came the 
light of the Forty Days—the light was greatly augmented. 
And then Glorified Humanity when the light was perfected in 
the gift of the Holy Ghost. The three are one in Him and 
the three meet in us all the requirements of sense, soul, and 
spirit. 

And there are times too when I think of the unfathomable 
meanings in those words: “Expedient for you that i go 
away.” I remember how I used to wish that He could have 
stayed on the earth. Oh that I could have been one of the 
little children He took in his arms and upon whom He left 
his blessing? I was one of those children and knew it not. 
The child-like fancy passed from me, but the truth remained; 
“ Expedient that i go away.” Long it lay in my heart; and 
I was slow in learning, that it was true of Christ because true 
of that Ideal of Humanity which He alone realized and em¬ 
bodied. Years had gathered upon me and the burdens 
heavier than years, before I saw it was “ expedient,” that 
the brightest and most precious objects should “ go away” ere 
they could fulfil their divinest ministry to our hearts. 
“ Life’s changeful orb had passed her full,” when it came 
home to my feelings and took up its abode: 

“ Benpath the umbrage deep 

That shades the silent world of memory;” » 



LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEE. 93 

And then I found by experience of sorrow, what could 
never have been acquired by intellect, that the Unseen 
is a necessary counterpart of the Seen, carrying forward the 
same work and giving it a completeness not otherwise possi¬ 
ble. Since that era of life, I have felt a tenderer beauty in the 
setting sun. I watch the stars as the hours glide from their 
radiant orbs and sink into the azure depths of space, and the 
thought cheers me that neither days nor nights are lost be¬ 
cause they “ GO away.” How enriched we are by our losses! 
What a treasure-holder is the past, saving all and hallowing 
all for future joy! Our childhood, youth, riper years; one 
grave have they all; sleeping with dust loved more than they 
and loved the more as the heavenward time shortens. Noble 
thoughts are nobler when they take such words as these: 


“ I cannot paint 
What then I was. The sounding cataract 
Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock. 

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, 

Their colors and their forms, were then to me 
An appetite; a feeling and a love, 

That had no need of a remoter charm 
By thought supplied, or any interest 
Unhorrowed from the eye. That time is past, 

And all its aching joys are now no more, 

And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this 
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts 
Have followed, for such loss, I would believe, 

Abundant recompense. For I have learned 
To look on nature, not as in the hour 
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes 
The still, sad music of humanity, 

Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power 
To chasten and subdue.” 

Next to liis great “ Ode on the Intimations of Immortali¬ 
ty,” Wordsworth has given in these “ Lines on revisiting 
the Banks of Wye,” the best assurance of his moral insight 
into certain facts of our nature unfortunately not often recog¬ 
nized. The relations of sensation to sensibility; the decay of 


94 LESSONS PROM THE LIEE OF ST. PETER 


the one for the higher life of the other; the advance of mind 
a 3 a fact of natural history from the external to the internal; 
and the perfecting of consciousness by its acting on our na¬ 
ture under the grace of Providence and the Holy Spirit, in 
their physico-intellectual and spiritual phenomena; were 
brought out by his genius with singular force and clearness. 
Except for him it is scarcely probable, that these ideas and 
sentiments would have found their way into the poetry of the 
century, and through it into our modes of thinking. The 
principle of Art with Wordsworth was this, viz: the visible 
is the key to the invisible. And I am much mistaken, if 
this principle is not the ground whereon Poetry stands when 
it comes to Christ and lays its offerings at His feet. I think, 
therefore, it may be claimed, that Wordsworth explored some 
chambers of the soul never entered, or certainly never inter¬ 
preted till his torch illuminated the walls. Coleridge was able to 
convert the abstractions of the philosopher into their kindred 
shapes in the poet but the fascinations of the mystical held 
his faculties captive in each. Keble, in the fulness of a saintly 
spirit, had a subtle perception of the religious symbolism of 
nature, but he was too much the poet of Ecclesiasticism and 
too closely identified with a movement that mistook the Chris¬ 
tianity of the Anglo-Saxon and the nineteenth century, to 
render any large service beyond a narrow circle of sympa¬ 
thetic souls. Mrs. Browning has given us the wondrous 
music of metaphysics in poetry, while Tennyson has combined 
in unique forms of excellence the metaphysical and the pic¬ 
turesque. Yet, it can hardly be questioned, that Wordsworth 
was the first of poets to see the physiological basis common 
to Christianity and Poetry. 

Thanks to the Source of all blessings for poetry with its 



LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 95 


perpetual life and love! It is the finest voiced humanity whose 
tones vibrate on earthly air. Next to Christianity, it is the 
divinest beauty inhabiting our world. Child of the earliest 
age of speech, never withholding its utterance of lofty rhythm 
if other tongues were dumb, nor pausing to take counsel of 
low motives by asking whether the nations would hear or for¬ 
bear, it speaks yet as in the ancient days from the heart of man 
to the hearts of men. If it has no more the inspiration of 
Psalm and Prophecy, its pathos touches every Miserere with 
a deeper tenderness, and its joy lifts every Hosannah and 
Hallelujah to a higher realm of exultant thanksgiving. 


SIXTH ESSAY. 


Persecution by the Pharisees—St. Stephen—New Circumstances and 
New Men—Expansion of the area of Christianity—St. Peter and 
the “Keys” at C^sarea—“ Rock ” and “Keys” both appear— 
Two individual centres in the Acts of the Apostles, viz : St. Peter 
and St. Paul —Portraiture of St. Peter by St. Luke—St. Peter dis¬ 
appears from view in the Acts—His General Epistle—Sympathy 
with St. Paul—Martyrdom—Reflections on his Character and 
Work—St. Peter in other Forms of Representation—Cartoons of 
Raphael—Archbishop Leighton’s Commentary—Traditions—St. 
Peter and St. Paul close the First Period of Church History—St. 
John and the new Epoch. 

A temporary lull followed the conservative speech of Ga¬ 
maliel. But persecution soon commenced with more violence 
than before, the Pharisees taking the lead. The traditions of 
the Law, the institutions of Moses, and the relations of Chris¬ 
tianity to Judaism, were the issues pending. Stephen comes 
into view as the champion of a liberal and catholic faith against 
the narrow dogmas and human inventions of the Pharisees. 
Scarcely has he risen into sight when he disappears in a tragic 
death; and yet who of all the worthies of the Old and New 
Testaments has left an image more distinct and less likely to 
be dimmed by time? What others were in training to see, he 
clearly foresaw, and, like all gifted souls that catch the earliest 
inspiration o£ a splendid truth, his whole nature opened to 
the illuminations of the Holy Ghost. The young Hellenist, 
free from the isolations of Judaism, carried the heart of the 
Gentile world in his bosom, and, with an eloquence too hu¬ 
mane to be resisted except by brutal force, interpreted to the 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 97 


synagogues and finally to the Sanhedrim, the future of 
Christianity. Pharisees might tolerate Peter but not Stephen, 
so youthful, so incisive, so daring. “ They saw his face as it 
had been the face of an angel.” That was the earthward side 
of the glory, on which, even irreverent eyes might look. But 
the heavenward side, he alone beheld: “the Son of Man stand¬ 
ing on the right hand of God.” And then “ they cast him out 
of the city and stoned him.” His prayer for himself was: 

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;” for his murderers, “Lord, 
lay not this sin to their charge,” and “he fell asleep.” Acts, 
Chap. VII. If such blood is once shed, what a fearful power 
of repetition it has! A furious persecution sets in and Saul of 
Tarsus becomes the inquisitor of the Pharisees. New men 
spring up; St. Stephen and then the rabid Tarsian. Yet, in 
due time, this Saul of Tarsus, who had been active in the mur¬ 
der of the young saint, takes up the work which his death was 
designed by the Pharisees to arrest. Nay, this same Saul, 
while the chosen Apostle of Christ to the Gentiles, is the 
agent of Providence in undermining the foundations of Phar- 
iseeism. First of all,* the overthrow of Sadduceeism; next the 
prostration of Phariseeism; such seems to be the order of 
Providence. 

New circumstances require new men. The divine philan¬ 
thropy of Peter in healing the sick and assisting the destitute 
had its counterpart in the informal provision of the Church for 
poor members. “Silver and gold, have I none:” Peter had 
prefaced his miracle on the lame man with these words: but 
“ silver and gold,” others had and they gave it freely for the 
benefit of needy believers. To organize this benovolence, 
seven Deacons were chosen and then consecrated to the work. 
But the distribution of alms had not satisfied Stephen nor did 


98 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


Philip confine himself to this task. Daily bread and the 
bread of eternal life were soon found at the same table. Thus 
it happened, that the Hebrew and Hellenistic elements of 
Judaism were brought into close union in Christianity and the 
combination introduced an era in the history of the young 
Church. Habits of thinking, tastes and sentiments, diffusive 
sympathies, displayed themselves that had not existed previ¬ 
ously, or, if existing, had lain dormant. The results of the 
Dispersion in the career of the “ Grecians ” or Hellenists re¬ 
appeared on a wider and higher scale in the sudden enlarge¬ 
ment of the sphere of Christianity. Philip, one of the seven 
Deacons, carried the Gospel into Samaria and baptized the 
Ethiopian eunich. Later on in this new day of wonders, 
Saul of Tarsus was converted and called to the Apostlesliip, 
representing in himself and in his extraordinary ministry over 
the Roman Empire, this perfected operation of the Hebrew 
and Hellenistic elements in the diffusion of Christianity. 
But the Apostle of the “ Keys ” was to give this great move¬ 
ment a formal initiation. 

It happe ned on this wise. Peter was on a tour of visitation 
to the Churches, had been at Lydda, and was now at Joppa. 
A noonday vision had been granted him that he might learn 
the fundamental principle of Christianity, viz: man is man. 
Could he receive the truth, that he should not call any man 
common or unclean? It was clearly taught: “ What God 
hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” Acts, X. “Not 
so, Lord,” was his answer at the first moment to the injunc¬ 
tion, “Rise Peter, kill and eat,” reminding us of, “Be it far 
from Thee, Lord,” at Caesarea Philippi and giving us an insight 
into those prejudices of the Jew which yet lingered as frag¬ 
mentary relics in the mind of a Christian Apostle. There is 


LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 99 


nothing painful in the identification of the present Peter with 
the past Peter, for we see the natural history of the man and 
it sets forth his spiritual experience in fine relief. Simulta¬ 
neous with the revelation to Peter, an incident was occurring 
at Caesarea, distant from Joppa a day and a half’s journey. 
Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian cohort, while at his after¬ 
noon devotions, had a vision that instructed him to send for 
Peter, “who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee.” The 
soldier obeyed the command and awaited results. Not yet 
Avas Peter’s mind clear as to the meaning of the vision but it 
was very clear that it w T as a vision and that the meaning would 
be explained. The messengers came and Peter returned to 
Caesarea with them. Cornelius related to Peter what he had 
seen and heard, and then Peter gave utterance to “the great 
principle of the new Dispensation” in the words: “ Of a 
truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; But in 
every nation, he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness, 
is accepted with Him.” Acts X. Was it possible that a man 
could become a Christian without first being a Jew? Dr. W. 
Smith very properly remarks, that such an “ idea had cer¬ 
tainly not yet crossed him,” but he acts with the promptness 
and decision of an enlightened Apostle. “ Keys ” and “ Rock ” 
again display themselves, and their symbolic meanings find a 
striking coalescence in his official course. The gift of the 
Holy Ghost fell on his hearers; they spoke “with tongnes and 
magnified God;” and, amid the astonishment of the circum¬ 
cision, Peter baptized the converts and received them into the 
Church. Then it was, that the first ray of light streamed over 
the western waters of the Mediterranean and rested on Italy 
with its prophetic illumination. Then it was, that the future 
of European Christianity was disclosed; its principle, its sen- 


100 LESSONS FPvOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEE. 


ment, its triumph, assured. ' Every circumstance, too, was 
suggestive. The household comes into prominence as the 
unit of Christian civilization. “ Thou and all thy house shall 
be saved.” Acts XI. The associations reach backward and 
forward. Backward, they are connected with the Centurion of 
Capernaum, whose servant “grievously tormented,” Jesus had 
healed, and with the Centurion at the Cross, who exclaimed: 
“ Truly this was the Son of God.” Forward, they link them¬ 
selves with Julius, a centurion of the Augustan cohort, whose 
history is interwoven w r ith Paul’s voyage to Eome as a pris¬ 
oner. A notable introduction it Tvas to Gentile Christianity: 
the “ prayers and alms,” divine longings and tender human 
sympathies interblended, the little light improved, the expec¬ 
tant household, and the home itself suddenly transformed into 
a temple with 7 its gate “ Beautiful ” opening towards an out¬ 
lying world. 

Pause a moment and consider St. Luke’s masterly group¬ 
ing of events. Here, in half a dozen chapters of the Acts, 
scenes are pictured in a small portion of Western Asia which 
expand over continents. A mere matter of “tables” leads to 
the Deaconship; the labors of the Deaconship take a wide 
range and enlarge into the earliest shape of aggressive Chris¬ 
tianity ; aggressive Christianity finds its immediate exponent in 
St. Stephen; and St. Stephen confronts the Sanhedrim fierce 
with rage. Tradition represents him as a beautiful young 
man but this beauty is only as a framework to a finer picture, 
for they “ saw r his face as it had been the face of an angel.” 

“ Like Maia’s son he stood, 

And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled 
The circuit wide.” 

And in the presence of that wonderful transfiguration, the 
opening stage of the apotheosis of youthful sanctity and love- 


LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 101 


liness, they “ gnashed on him with their teeth ” and then mur¬ 
dered him. But no human blood was ever so prolific. The 
death-hour of St. Stephen was the birth-liour of the Mission¬ 
ary movement of Christianity. North, South, East, West, the 
work spread, and Pentecost vindicates its office as the Pente¬ 
cost of all nations. Pompey the Great had given the East to 
Rome and Julius Caesar the West; and, during the period 
which St. Luke covers (Chapters VI, XI,) we see Christian¬ 
ity starting on the two great highways, the sword of Rome 
had opened. If St. Peter is the Apostle for the East, St. 
Paul will be the Apostle for the West, each providentially 
adapted to his continental sphere and fitted by the Holy 
Ghost for[ the unlike races, with which they were to come in 
contact. All divine education is double; providential as to 
outward relations, spiritual as to inner experience. In St. 
Paul’s case, we see the European training clearly enough, but, 
if we look closely, we shall discern the Asiatic discipline of 
St. Peter quite as fully. All done quietly; for if the Kingdom 
of Heaven cometh not with observation, neither are its human 
agents prepared for their tasks beneath the eye of the world. 
“ I ANSWERED THEE IN THE SECRET PLACE OE THUNDER.” Great 
minds are formed in solitude; and when God answers the cry 
of humanity for helpers by sending such men as Paul and 
Peter, the answer comes from “ the secret place oe thunder.” 

For this act Peter w as censured in Jerusalem by those “ of 
the circumcision.” “Thou w^entest in to men uncircumcised 
and didst eat with them.” A wise man, just liberated from 
the thraldom of prejudice, knows how to unbind the fetters 
that shackle others, and, in this instance, Peter used his op- 
2 >ortunity. Narrating the vision, the coming of the messen¬ 
gers, the revelation of the Spirit, the visit to Cornelius, the 


102 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


preaching, the descent of the Spirit, he very pertinently closed 
with the words: “Whatwas I that I could withstand God?” 
All murmurs ceased, and, with one accord, they glorified God. 
“Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto 
life.” Acts XI. Thus closed another great triumph of Chris¬ 
tianity. But. was it only a historical fact of vast significance 
in the outward relations of Christ’s religion? By no means; 
it was that and it was something else. All biography is a 
commentary to explain and enforce history. The dramatist 
gives prominenee to his characters and makes their personal 
fortunes an absorbing interest by rendering all events tributa¬ 
ry to dramatic position. St. Luke is no dramatist. He is a 
historian of consummate insight who sees the intimate con¬ 
nection between external and internal things and has the dis¬ 
ciplined tact to show their correspondence. Agreeably to this 
principle of constructive literary art, he has tw 7 o individual 
centres in the Acts, representing two distinct phases in Church 
history. These centres are St. Peter and St. Paul. Around 
the first, are grouped the events of the spread of the Gospel in 
Judea. We have Pentecost, the preaching and its immense 
results, the healing of the lame man and its sequel, the im¬ 
prisonments and the course of the Sanhedrim, the enlarged 
scope of miracles, the provision of the Church for the poor 
and the dissatisfaction of the Hellenists wdth the Hebrews, 
the Deacons and their w 7 ork, Stephen’s death, Philip the Evan¬ 
gelist and his success in Samaria, the persecution, Saul’s con¬ 
version, the event at Caesarea, the visit of Barnabas and Saul to 
Jerusalem, the death of James, the imprisonment and deliver¬ 
ance of Peter, and the death of Herod. Throughout this period 
of early formative action, the incipient policy of the Church be¬ 
ing in process of development, Peter is the principal figure. 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 103 


And St. Luke never loses sight of the man, implying his pres¬ 
ence even when absent and suggesting his influence where it 
is not clearly discernible. In this way, the biography of Peter 
is inwoven witli the general history. And it was important 
that this should be done, since the symbols of “ Keys ” and 
“ Rock,” needed a full, explicit and authoritative elucidation. 

Who was so well qualified for this twofold task of biography 
and history as St. Luke? And where could his discernment 
and skill appear except in the Acts of the Apostles? No one 
but a man who had a “ perfect understanding of all things 
from the very first ” could have presented two such distinct 
pictures as St. Luke has given of the Peter of the Third Gos¬ 
pel and the Peter of the Acts. Distinct they are but never 
separable. One always implies the other. The outline is the 
same but it fills up slowly. Touch follows touch as the Peter 
of Galilee becomes the Peter of Jerusalem—provincial and 
then metropolitan—fisherman with the sea-beat in his blood 
and then the Apostle with the calm throb of majesty in his 
heart. Touch after touch, furthermore, when the Peter of 
Jerusalem expands into the Peter of Caesarea. The biography 
in no case anticipates the general history. There is a pro¬ 
gress in doctrine, a progress in experience and character, a 
progress of external events, nor is the nexus ever broken. 
And herein appears the artlessness of the art, that while so 
much is obviously left untold, sufficient is told to furnish us 
an adequate conception of Peter as shaped by Christ in the 
flesh and afterwards by Christ in the Spirit. From the dawn¬ 
ing hours at and near Capernaum to the resplendent noontide 
at Joppa and Caesarea, the plastic hand that formed him was 
none other than the one that guided the pen which depicted 
his weakness and strength. 


104 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


A truer title could not have been given to St. Luke’s history 
than the “ Acts of the Apostles.” “ The former treatise ” is 
designated as a work, in which, he had proposed to show what 
“Jesus began both to do and to teach,” and, in this latter pro¬ 
duction, his obvious purpose was to set forth what the Apostles 
“ began both to do and to teach.” And hence the two works, 
the Third Gospel and the Acts, were written with the same 
leading view and under the control of the same general pur¬ 
pose. Now, Christ’s Ministry was chiefly Judaic as to local 
scope. Yet He spoke of other sheep not of the Jewish fold, 
offended the Nazarenes by referring to the widow of Sarepta 
and Naaman the Syrian, healed the Syro-Phoenician’s daugh¬ 
ter, and compared Himself to Jonah, the prophet of Nineveh. 
It was a two-fold Ministry, a Ministry of facts and a Ministry of 
ideas, the latter outreaching the limitations of the former. If 
Peter is to continue what Christ “ began both t b do and to 
teach,” we should naturally expect him to be prominently ac¬ 
tive in Judea. Quite as naturally, we should expect him to 
comprehend slowly the wider range of Christ’s plan. A pro¬ 
found realist, Peter would look far more at Christ’s Ministry 
of facts than at his Ministry of ideas. Though enlightened, 
though fully apostolic at heart, nevertheless, he was a man 
always in danger of mistaking prejudice for conscience. Add 
to this the fact, that the times were extremely unfavorable to 
liberality of intellect and catholicity of feeling. A down¬ 
trodden people, nothing left them but their memories and 
religion, were not in a condition propitious to the missionary 
spirit of Christianity. And yet, despite of these things, Peter 
had from the day of Pentecost this primal instinct of Christi¬ 
anity—the missionary spirit— and it was simply awaiting the 
hour of development. No doubt, he was unconscious of its 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 105 


presence and he was the better in the end for having been un¬ 
conscious. Epochs of the soul never begin in the conscious 
man. They date back of his self-observation. They come 
silently from the Spirit, and, for a season, keep their secret 
guarded from intrusive eyes. Thus it is, that the divine 
reality grows like a child in the mother’s womb until the 
birtli-liour witnesses to its fitness for breathing the open 
world. St. Luke is careful to indicate the missionary spirit 
in St. Peter several years before the vision at Joppa. The 
Discourses at Pentecost and thereafter, the quotations from 
Joel and the Psalms, the character of the miracles, the en¬ 
larged sentiment of humanity, and especially his references to 
the Lord Jesus, have no meaning, if Christianity is not a 
world-wide religion, greater than law or temple and greater 
because the absolute and eternal archetype of truth. 

Food, when first taken, refreshes, and, afterwards, it nour¬ 
ishes by becoming a part of ourselves. No idea and particu¬ 
larly no grand idea is a living constituent of our nature till 
it has had time to deliver up its contents and secure their as¬ 
similation. Peter’s earlier Apostleship as recorded in the 
Acts illustrated this law of the mind. Christ was the fulfil¬ 
ment of prophecy, the corner-stone, the Prince of life, made 
both Lord and Christ, supreme object of faith, his name the 
only name whereby man could be saved. These truths, he saw, 
and he was to continue seeing them until their import was 
fully disclosed. And with what discernment St. Luke traces 
the growing experience! There is the intrepid Stephen, the 
freshness of manhood on his brow and the premature fulness 
of manhood in his intellect and heart; may I venture to say, 
that God made him an interpreter of Peter’s unconscious soul? 
Certain it is, that he put Peter’s doctrine in the boldest light 


106 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


and brought Phariseeism to a sharp issue. Philip, the Evan¬ 
gelist, did the same kind of work in Samaria. Step by step, 
the conscious Peter was developing. Caesarea is reached in 
the fulness of time and Peter is at the height of his power. 
A few years after, we see him in Jerusalem at the Council, in 
which, the principles acted on in the case of Cornelius and the 
Gentiles are re-affirmed. From this time, we have no con¬ 
nected history of him. The great work of his life has been 
done and he retires from view. Yet we hear from him again 
in his two Epistles. They are General Epistles, written to 
show the harmony between the Law and the Gospel and to 
glorify the Christ of Christianity as the Christ of the Old 
Testament—the object of its prophecies, the substance of its 
shadows, the end of its institutions—Christ Himself embodied 
in the Theocracy as preparatory to his actual Incarnation. 

Rightly are they called General Epistles, but can any stu¬ 
dent-reader fail to trace the auto-biograpliical element 
everywhere present in them? The same emphasis on proph¬ 
ecy that appears in the discourses reported by St. Luke is 
repeated; the recollection of the venerated fathers; the happi¬ 
ness of Christians to suffer for the name of Christ which 
he himself illustrated so worthily just after Pentecost; the fa¬ 
vorite figure of the ‘‘corner-stone;” our redemption not by 
“ corruptible things as silver and gold” taking us back to the 
miracle of the healing at the gate of the Temple; the “ taber¬ 
nacle” which he expected shortly “to put off” as the Lord 
Jesus had showed him; the judgment beginning “ at the house 
of God” as it had begun with Ananias and Sapphira; the ref¬ 
erence to the Transfiguration and the “excellent glory;” the 
“ chosen generation, royal priesthood, holy nation, peculiar 
people;” in all these ideas, images, allusions, we revive our 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 107 


knowledge of Peter as we have seen him in the narrative of the 
Gospel and in the Acts. No such continuity belongs to the 
history of any one of the Apostles. Thoroughly natural as to 
actuality, it is equally so as to the ideality suggested by the 
type of character and the pre-destined sphere, in which, the 
character was to act out itself to the limits of its capacity. 

Along with this auto-biographical element, and, indeed, a 
part of it, one discerns an intellectual sympathy with St. Paul 
that points out the completeness of St. Peter’s development in 
the direction entered on at Caesarea. By this intellectual sym¬ 
pathy, I do not mean the substance of St. Peter’s thought. I 
mean his method as to breadth of statement and fulness of ex¬ 
pression touching those points, on which, Judaizing Chris¬ 
tians claimed him as authority. Even turns of expression 
occur in these Epistles, such as “ this is the true grace of God 
wherein ye stand ” (1 Peter Y, 12,) which indicate St. Paul’s 
influence on his mode of representing the Gospel. These two 
Apostles never preached two Gospels but always and every 
where the same Gospel. Long before St. Paul wrote: “other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus 
Christ.” (1 Cor. Ill, II.) St. Peter had declared to the San¬ 
hedrim (Acts IY, 11,12,) that Christ, the rejected stone of the 
builders, had “become the head of the corner.” True men as 
they get older draw nearer together. They approximate a 
common standard in minor matters, as they had done previ¬ 
ously in greater matters, lose their angularities, hold their in¬ 
dividuality in subjection to the paramount Ideal of humanity. 
The more genuineness in a man, the more this quality of con¬ 
formableness permeates his being. I enjoy thinking of this 
law of human development. Observation teaches, that at first 
we bear the image of our parents ; then we grow like the pre- 


108 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETEB 


vailing type of the community in wliicn we are reared; and, 
finally, age brings out the race-likeness and the Ideal of hu¬ 
manity; so at least the natural history of development has 
impressed me where God’s laws have been observed. Old per¬ 
sons, who are cultured and saintly, are very beautiful for the 
reason, that they have grown away from the idea of the indi¬ 
vidual and the family towards the Ideal of the Human as 
located in the race, but never fully expressed until embodied 
in the Son of Mary. If the laws of life are faithfully obeyed, 
a man grows more from fifty to seventy years of age than du¬ 
ring all the preceding half century; he grows by widening; 
and he widens by approximating the standard of human¬ 
ity in the race as an order of beings in the Universe, and the 
order of bqing, God has taken into union with Himself. No 
wonder, then, that St. Peter was such a beautiful character in 
old age. If we are to live forever w ith Christ, and the holy 
angels, we must first learn to live with men. The last addL 
tion made to our life with others here is in sympathy of intel¬ 
lect, and it is just this sort of sympathy, we find in St. Peter 
the aged with St. Paul the aged. The former is in the East, 
the latter in the West, but they reach their arms across the 
distance, and embrace each other. Sylvanus, a companion of 
Paul’s, is even now with St. Peter, and by him, he sends the 
Epistles to the Hebrew Christians scattered over Asia. St. 
Mark, too, another associate of St. Paul’s, is with him. Has 
he been the bearer of documents and messages from St. Paul 
to St. Peter? Likely enough; but, whether so or not, St* 
Mark is with him in Babylon. And there in that far-off 
oriental world and in a city associated with prophecy 
and psalm, St. Peter has been reading St. Paul’s 
Epistles. Did he find therein “ seme things hard to 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 109 


be understood? ” Yea; but they had been written “ ac¬ 
cording to the wisdom given unto him,” and consequently, he 
formally acknowledges their divine inspiration. The acknowl¬ 
edgment is two-fold, implied in the mode and coloring of his 
thoughts as Pauline, and expressed in direct statement. And 
these Epistles, to which, he gives such studious attention, a 
learner yet in the school of the Spirit, are the work of “ our 
beloved brother Paul,” who had properly rebuked him at An* 
tioch for compliance with Judaizing tenets by departing from 
his ( Peter’s) principles. And they are sent westward to Asia 
Minor—to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, to the regions where 
the “ beloved brother ” had labored so much and so faithfully. 

Thanks to Providence for such a history! It is an addition 
to our biography that I know not how we could do without. 
Certain things are here which I find no where else in litera¬ 
ture, not even in other portions of tlie Sacred Writings. “ All 
things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom 
we have to do.” Hebrews IY, 13. And, at times, it pleases 
God to give us the help of this insight into the souls of others. 
In large part, biography is unsatisfying since it is written for 
the world and gives the world-side of its subject. But the 
view' of St. Peter in the New Testament is“ naked and opened ” 
unto our eyes. One would not have selected for a mere hu¬ 
man leadership, this impetuous and fiery Galilean. John and 
James seem to have had advantages of social position that 
commended them to special appreciation. Nathaniel was 
honored as a noble Israelite. But the Lord Jesus knew “ what 
was in man ” and He chose Peter because he knew 7 Him. Nor 
are we left in any doubt as to the Lord’s mode of dealing with 
him. The progress of the work, the causes operating, the 
auspicious circumstances, the retarding agencies, are all tangi- 


110 LESSONS EBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


bly presented, so that we see the man in process of making. 
St. Peter, for a time, was the most important witness that Christ, 
ascended to the Headship of the Universe, had on earth. It 
is not enough to see him as this witness, elect among the elect. 
Fain would we see more, even this: how did he become such a 
witness? And we are gratified to the utmost, for no man’s 
heart in this world has been laid so completely bare Would 
that highly organized sensuous nature have been thought at 
the outset, as having an uncommon capacity for the highest 
form of practical spiritual life? Almost everything looked 
the other way One would have credited him with materials, 
out of w hich, a Galilean Zealot, or a Crusader of the later ages, 
might have been built up, but no one would have even sur¬ 
mised, that in him lay the destiny of Christ’s most thoughtful 
and courageous standard-bearer, when the Jewish Hierarchy 
and the Christian Church were first to meet on the greatest 
moral battle-field this world of perpetual warfare has ever 
witnessed. 

Blessed be God! Christianity started on the high table-land 
of heroism and will keep it forever. “ Time’s noblest off¬ 
spring is the last;” yea, truly so; but not so with God’s 
elect, for in that procession which marches heavenward and is 
unbroken by the ages, the Apostles of Heroism lead|the way. 

No one but Christ as the Son of God could have foreseen 
the future Apostle in the fisherman of Galilee. It is a matter 
of latent capacity, which is that in men, we are most unable to 
read. Our judgments of others as to intellectual and moral 
force, are based on considerations of ability which we have 
seen in actual manifestation. Capacity lies far down among 
the reserved instincts. No one dare trust his own capacity 
until he has tested his ability. Yet Christ saw “ Cephas. ” in 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. Ill 


Simon on the first interview. They met as strangers; they 
parted as friends. No one but Christ ao the Son of Man could 
have drawn him at once so near his heart, and no one save He 
could have borne with him so patiently and exerted so directly 
on him the influences of a ministration truthfully tender and 
earnestly persistent. Here, then, we observe the Divine and the 
Human, the two natures and yet One Person, and they are 
united in their work as in their character. Times there are 
when Christ’s human sympathies are beautifully seen in his 
intercourse with St. Peter, as when He cured his sick mother- 
in-law, or asked him in the agony of the Garden: “Simon, 
sleepest thou? ” Then, on other occasions, as in the scene on 
the Lake shore, his Deity is displayed in its sovereign pre¬ 
rogatives. Nor do I see how we can explain the transforming 
influence which Christ Jesus exerted on St. Peter except by 
recognizing that He was in a special and exclusive sense, the 
Son of God as he was unquestionably the Son of Man by virtue 
of a relationship to humanity, none of the sons of men can 
claim. 

And now the days are coming on when he was to stretch forth 
his hands and another should gird him and carry him whither 
he wouldest not. They are growing distincter to those eyes 
that are getting dimmer to all else. Far away in the distance 
lies Galilee with the scenes of his childhood, youth and ma¬ 
turing manhood—a picturesque history of his life when that 
life was buoyant and sanguine and full of adventure. Yet was 
it much more to him the Galilee of the Lord Jesus who had 
taught in its villages and cities, healed its sick, driven out its 
demons and left every where the wonders of his beneficent hand. 
Images of hills, mountains, lakes; all outward beauty; all forms 
of sublimity; most of all the mysteries of glory in the nightly 


112 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

firmament pass from the intellect of the senses into the soul 
of sanctified age and there find the dwelling place of their im¬ 
mortality. This experience, Peter had reached. The boundary 
had been touched where experience on earth ceases to draw 
instruction from the past or strength from the present. Am¬ 
pler room than “ this tabernacle,” was needed and it could only 
be found in the house of “many mansions.” Long ago, he 
had said: “ I will lay down my life for Thy sake,” and the 
Lord Jesus had signified by “what death he should'glorify 
God.” His own promise and the Lord’s prophecy were ful¬ 
filled together when he was crucified at Rome. 

Thus ended a career which admits of no explanation except 
that of supernatural grace. And yet it cannot have escaped 
the notice of the reader, that as he has proceeded with the 
history, he has been conscious of no abrupt breaks, no violent 
transitions except in one instance, but has felt all the while 
that he has moved on ground which, if not even and smooth, 
undulated like, a landscape of nature. “ Always human,” says 
Mr. Froude of Bunyan; and surely we have detected the 
“ always human ” in St. Peter. The character addresses us in 
the familiar language of life; it is no strange dialect but the 
very vernacular of our being. At every turn, we have been 
reminded of what we have often seen in our intercourse with 
others, reminded still more of ourselves, nor have we failed to 
hear in our own consciences the echoes of the Lord’s voice in 
the gentle chidings or the stern rebukes of Peter’s faults and 
sins. Somehow, the reality in this man’s life gets unhindered 
access to our hearts. We know not how, we care not to know. 
Instinct has too much self-respect to ask itself idle and profit¬ 
less questions. The realness takes hold of consciousness, and, 
if forsooth we be the dupes of a tricky magician in our 


LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 113 

own souls, where has the magician learned his art? Such a 
man as Peter could not have been invented. He is entirely 
too human for imagination to have created and he is thus 
intensely human because of his near association with Him who 
was the Son of Man by virtue of being Son of God. A divine 
light shines in Peter and through him, and he is vividly hu¬ 
man to us under its illumination. The outward explains the 
inward, the inward enables us to understand the outward; and 
the unity of the man’s history, despite his errors and lapses, 
resembles one of those grand passages in Milton’s poetry, in 
which the melody is sacrificed for a time in order to gain a 
finer harmony. 

Standing in the sunset of Judaism, he is a striking character 
in the aspects of his nationality. The long, heavy shadows, 
deepening into darkness, are spreading from the fatal West. 
The old Theocracy is tottering; political and religious troubles 
never far apart in Jewish annals, are increasing; and a for¬ 
eign rule and a local hierarchy are becoming more and more 
mutually inflammatory. In the middle portion of his life, he 
has seen Caiaphas, the tool of Pilate, deposed, and Pilate him¬ 
self disgraced. Year by year, dangers thicken. If there is an 
interval of tranquillity such as followed Saul’s conversion 
(A. D. 37, 44,) a new outbreak soon occurs. Death seems 
always imminent. Death passes by private disciples and 
smites down the leaders. Stephen earlier from the Evange¬ 
lists and James later from the Apostles, are the first to suffer 
martyrdom. St. Peter is imprisoned and miraculously de¬ 
livered; and Herod Agrippa 1, who intended to take his life, 
returns to Caesarea and dies beneath the vengeance of God. 
And here in this same Caesarea, the Roman capital of Judea, 
where King Herod falls under the stroke of a retributive 


114 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER, 


Providence, Peter opens to Cornelius and the Gentiles the 
doors of an empire far greater than that of the Caesars. * 

Yet this man with his intense nationality, thrown all the 
middle season of life into the centre of a turbulent arena, and 
himself the most excitable of men as to temperament—this 
Galilean, this fisherman, has learned in three years with Christ 
how to use his strength, how to draw John closer to his bosom, 
how to work through Stephen and Philip, and open the way 
more fully for Paul’s early success. One pictures him late in 
his career with St. Mark by his side, the latter writing the 
Second Gospel in the midst of the scenery of Rome and catch¬ 
ing the vigor of Rome’s imperial air in the graphic terseness 
and comprehensive force of his style. Long afterwards, the 
most splendid Cathedral of Christendom took the name of St. 
Peter’s and it has been for centuries the miracle of architecture 
among the wonders of Rome. Venice rises out of the sea with 
the magnificent church of St. Mark’s, rich with the tribute of 
an epoch when Venice was feared and honored throughout the 
world. Rut the simple images in one’s mind ot the veteran 
Apostle and the fervent writer of the Second Gospel have far 
more spiritual impressiveness than these architectural dis¬ 
plays. We see St. Peter in his greatness when we see him in 
himself alone. It is not the highest order of intellectual 
greatness. It is not the greatness of St. John’s insight nor of 
St. Paul’s logical power. But it is a greatness, in which, the 
forces of thought, of executive will, and of feeling, blend in 
singular compactness, and form a man exactly adapted to be 
a true and noble leader in the opening era of the Christian 
Church. 

There is a specific greatness which God creates at times for 
the mass of the people. David popularized poetry and music 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 115 

in the Hebrew Church and Solomon’s Proverbs went broad¬ 
cast over the land. Whatever his defects, Julius Csesar was 
Rome’s natural head because he embodied in himself the in¬ 
stinctive tendencies of an age, that inherited all the ages as 
introductory to a new epoch, wide as the world and enduring 
as the globe. Luther was Huss, Jerome of Prague, and 
Savonarola, enlarged to the wants of his day. Watt, Hargreaves, 
Crompton, Whitney, were inventors in behalf of toiling mil¬ 
lions. Bunyan, Watts, Defoe, the Wesleys, were writers for 
the multitude. Beneath all such wonders, there lies the su¬ 
preme wonder, the Providence of God; and it manifests itself 
most in this, that such men never prepare the people to receive 
them but find the people ready beforehand for their advent. 
To speak of the£e mea as products of their periods, is neither 
philosophy nor religion. They are born, not out of the soul 
of humanity, but out of the spirit of the Universe. Now, this 
was St. Peter’s special greatness, that he stood on an eminence 
which rose directly from the level of the people and was ac¬ 
cessible to them on all sides. Above them he must be, in or¬ 
der to be truly of them, and, therefore, he was symbolized by 
“ Rock ” and “ Keys.” His very infirmities endear him to 
us because we know them to be weaknesses only. “ Rock ” 
and “ Keys ” are not alarming to ecclesiastical sensibilities but 
commend themselves to confidence and appreciation, when we 
see what a man of the people St. Peter was and how he grew 
more and more in companionship with their hearts and in 
tender relations to his Brother Apostles. As he advanced in 
years, he became more Christ-like and this is the truest test of 
manhood. Had he been stronger, he would have been weaker. 
The composite elements of his character made him available 
to act most efficiently upon the people when they were begin- 


116 LESSONS FBOM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


ning to be a people in .a sense distinct from being Jews, 
Greeks and Romans. How long, it jdeased Providence to 
keep him at his work, appears in this fact, that none of the 
twelve survived him but St. John, and St. John was to be the 
thinker and writer of a new age. One likes to think of him as 
St. Peter among the common people. He “ had been with 
Jesus” and learned to be divinely human. That shadow on 
the street; that kindness to iEneas, bedridden for eight years; 
that .pathos in the scene at Joppa when the widows stood 
weeping by the corpse of Tabitha and showed the garments 
made for the poor, and the sudden change when he said: 
“Tabithaarise;” these are the things that touch one’s heart 
most deeply. For, at last, men are greatest in their sympa¬ 
thies and even Apostles are most like their Lord and Master 
when they feel the sorrows of the poor. 

And in all these tasks which love had exalted into inspira¬ 
tions of joy, St. Peter little knew what associations would 
connect themselves imperishably with his name, and how 
Architecture, Sculpture, Painting and Poetry, would render 
him the tributes of their admiration. Look, for instance, at 
the cartoons of Raphael representing scenes of New Testa¬ 
ment history. Here, the familiar occupants of my library 
walls, are seven large engravings, copies of the original works, 
and four of them contain the figure of St. Peter. The first on 
which I fix my eye is the Miraculous draught of Fishes in 
the early part of the Lord’-s Ministry. And how suggestive- 
Christ’s form is of lordship over material nature! The scenery 
is wide and open, the lines of the landscape free and graceful, 
the light resplendent, the entire arrangement expressive of 
typical beauty, while the moral of the picture is brought out 
in Peter’s adoration of Christ as contrasted with the other dis- 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 117 


ciples whose corded muscles are busy saving the fish. Near 
by is the “ Pasce Oves Meas.” Morning has dawned over the 
hills and the sea of Tiberias lies tranquil in the early waking 
of nature. The excitement of the miracle is over and the awe 
of the risen Christ is upon the Apostles who are grouped on 
one side of Him. St. Peter is kneeling before the Lord, his 
attitude and manner indicative of humility and reverence 
blended with the intensity of love, and He looking upon His 
servant with majestic tenderness. What a morning of a new 
day in the Apostle’s heart! Everywhere appears that peculiar 
repose, which, differing widely frcm the quiet of sunset and 
twilight is never seen except at this hour, and only then in 
perfection where land, water, and sky, combine their varied 
aspects of serenity. I turn from this to the Healing of the 
Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Here 
the genius of the artist allows itself full liberty in expressing 
the beauty of the place in accord with the beauty of the occa¬ 
sion. If the figures are less numerous and the cast of the 
scene much less dramatic than the Miraculous Draught of 
Fishes, yet the division of the view by means of the compart¬ 
ments and the ornamentation of the pillars present an unusual 
fulness of detail and an elaborateness of finish, which, to¬ 
gether with the flowers and the children and the graceful 
Jewess just entering the portico, impress one by the vivid con¬ 
trast between the sensuous charms of Judaism and the sim¬ 
plicity of Christianity. St. Peter and St. John occupy the 
centre of the scene. The deformed man, seated on the pave¬ 
ment and resting against the pillar, has his imploring face 
turned towards St. Peter, whose devout air embodies the mo¬ 
ment of the action. Yery unlike this is the representation of 
the Death of Ananias. On a low platform in the hall, stand 
the Apostles, St. Peter in the centre, his attitude erect and au¬ 
thoritative, the eyes downward on the fallen man upon whom 
the Divine vengeance has just descended. Consternation 


118 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


seizes the nearest spectators whose excited gestures contrast 
with the calm dignity of the Apostolic group. Light from a 
troubled sky enters through a side opening and concentrates on 
Ananias dead, his position and appearance denoting the sud¬ 
denness of the stroke. On each wing are seen poor disciples 
receiving alms, and, so instantaneous has been the event, that 
they are not yet aware of its having occurred. 

This is Art translating Christianity into its own special and 
noble language. It was not one of the “ other tongues ” of 
Pentecost but it has its divine work for the Lord Jesus. 

Yet in these productions of Art, what is it that most inter¬ 
ests a thoughtful mind? Not the invention and expressional 
power, though confessedly so remarkable, which they exhibit 
to the imagination and are most appreciated when its mood is 
most receptive of beauty and grandeur. One genius may orig¬ 
inate ideas that another genius amplifies and perfects. Hints 
may pass unobstructed through the upper ether and more 
with the easy celerity of light from intellect to intellect where 
nature has provided the original endowment and culture im¬ 
proved the peculiar gift. But how did it happen, that when 
Art had reached its zenith in the modern world and the later 
Italy had gathered into herself all the antique ideals of grace 
and sublimity as the earlier Italy had acquired secular empire 
over the nations; how did it happen that “ unlearned and igno¬ 
rant men” should attract the homage of Art and furnish sub¬ 
jects for its rarest hours of thrilling inspiration? Whence 
issued the secret charm? Though what subtle aura, too at¬ 
tenuated for the most refined senses, came the consciousness 
to M. Angelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, of the miracles of 
loveliness and majesty contained in these New Testament 
scenes, and challenging Art to put forth the “high endeavor” 
and reap the “ glad success?” Provincial Galileans, obscure 
fishermen, men despised as “ the filth and offscouring ” of the 
world; are these the men who make a history that cannot re¬ 
main a history, but must expand till it possess every domain of 
thought, till it go into marble and on canvass, and is built up 


LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 119 


in magnificent Cathedrals? A history that should dwell in 
mens’ hearts and finally reach its highest reality as fact in the 
idealities of poetry and music? Christian Art can have no 
basis unless Christianity is true. The spirituality which dis¬ 
tinguishes it from Greek Art is not a quality but an essence, 
and, hence, if it had not been a profound moral sentiment, 
never could it have taken an artistic shape. Art made religion 
in Egypt, India, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome. But Christian¬ 
ity dictated to Europe its most attractive subjects of Art 
and supplied to genius the inspirations of power. 

But not in Art alone do we see the world acknowledging its 
interest in St. Peter. The wisdom, fervor, and Platonic lofti¬ 
ness of Archbishop Leighton found their most genial activity 
in the commentary on the First General Epistle of St. Peter. 
“ Blessed the hour,” says Coleridge, “that introduced me to 
the knowledge of the evangelical, apostolical Archbishop 
Leighton. Next to the inspired Scriptures—yea, and as the 
vibration of that once-struck hour remaining on tho air, 
stands Leighton’s commentary on the 1st Epistle of St. 
Peter.” Then, the traditions preserved concerning him, if 
they be not historically reliable, are yet touchingly beautiful. 
One would fain believe them true, so natural they seem, so 
fully in keeping with the man. It would be like him to stand 
near his wife when she suffered martyrdom and to cheer her 
spirit in the sharpness of the agony—like him to rise every 
morning that he might hear the cock crow and be reminded of 
his fall—and like him too to ask in the immediate prospect of 
death that he might be crucified with his head downwards. 
The golden haze which hangs over the past, never fails to re¬ 
flect picturesque forms but underneath that aerial transfigura¬ 
tion lies a solid globe with its massive realties. It is certain, 
however, that St. Peter ended his career on the eve of that ex¬ 
traordinary series of events which astounded Pagans no less 
than Christians, and marked an epoch in the annals of this 
tragic world. The sky was “ red and lowering” then and no 
ear failed to catch the prophetic sounds of the thunder rolling 


120 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 


as the dirge of death over Western Asia and Eastern Europe. 
Already, the “ tribulation such as was not since the beginning 
of the world ” had set in. Famine was abroad and pestilence 
was following in its wake. Insurrections, that had been accu¬ 
mulating the revenges of many generations, were now heaving 
their violence against the institutions of government and the 
most sacred altars of human society. One lust of evil never 
comes alone. One excites another till the entire brood is un¬ 
loosed in the horrid rivalry of crime, and, at that day, crime 
grasped the world in its hands. Revolt against Rome had 
broken out in Judea and the torch was blazing that was to fire 
the Temple and the Holy City. 

The work of St. Peter, extending from Jerusalem to Caesa¬ 
rea, from Caesarea to Antioch, from Antioch to Babylon, and 
from Babylon to Rome, had been done, and he was spared 
the awful spectacle of consummated woes. Of the Twelve, St. 
John survived who was ordained to be the single living tie 
connecting the First and Second Periods of the Christian 
Church. Into a new world, he was to find his lonely pathway 
among the relics of ancient civilizations and sadder yet over 
the ashes of Jerusalem. Pagan literature was to enter on a 
far better era with Plutarch, Juvenal, and Marcus Aurelius. 
But the glory of the age in its large renewals of intellectual 
and spiritual life was only to appear with faint and struggling 
beams in these earnest moralists. Taken at their best, it is an 
unconscious Christianity they represent—prophets of the wil¬ 
derness rather than preachers of New Testament righteous¬ 
ness. The solitary figure that rises into commanding promi¬ 
nence at this great epoch in St. John, and the grandeur of his 
attitude is that he bears in his hand the Fourth Gospel. Nor 
could there have been a more beautiful close to that Gospel 
than St. John’s recollection of the hour, when he stood for 
the last time on the shore of Tiberias, the dearest of earthly 
friends, St. Peter by his side, and both hearing of a future 
that revealed martyrdom for the one and hid the destiny of the 
other in the heart of the Lord Jesus. 











